QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF NEIGHBORING BUILDING EFFECTS ON DRAG FORCES

Resumen

The continuous expansion of cities has led to increasingly dense urban areas, such that buildings originally designed for open terrain may experience changes in wind conditions as new structures are erected nearby. This study investigates the Neighborhood Factor (NF), defined as the ratio between the drag force acting on a building in the presence of an adjacent structure and the drag force acting on the same isolated building, based on wind tunnel test data. The neighboring building, with the same dimensions as the principal structure, was positioned at four locations aligned with the studied building. Three wind incidence angles were analyzed: 0°, 45°, and 90°. For each configuration, time histories of pressure measurements were used to compute drag forces and the corresponding mean NF values. The results show that nearby buildings can significantly modify the aerodynamic load, with increases exceeding 18% in certain arrangements. The study further indicates that relevant aerodynamic interactions may persist beyond codified limits, highlighting the need to account for neighboring building effects in wind load assessments, particularly in densely built urban environments.