ABSTRACT
This paper describes a comparison of the wind code requirements on tall buildings in Hong Kong and Macau. The current Hong Kong Code, the current Macau Code and the 2008 draft amendment to the Macau Code are studied and compared in aspects of velocity profiles, design wind pressures, topographic effects and pressure coefficients. Along-wind loads on two example tall buildings are calculated using the wind codes of Hong Kong and Macau to illustrate the differences. Main results of two topographic cases, building on level ground and on the edge of escarpment, are presented. The results indicate that for the example buildings on level ground, the Macau Codes give higher wind loads than the Hong Kong Code. For the example buildings on escarpment, very small increase in wind loads due to slope effect is obtained when using the current Macau Code. The speed-up effect on slope by the draft Macau Code is generally higher than the Hong Kong Code.
Keywords: Base moment, Base shear, Characteristic wind pressure, Dynamic response, Expected life of building, Reference velocity, Topographic effects, Wind codes.
