Abstract:A high-rise ancient wooden pagoda plays an important role in architectural cultural heritage worldwide and is a representative example of Chinese ancient wooden architecture. External wind load is a harmful factor affecting the structural safety of ancient wooden pagodas. Artificial forestry can change the wind field environment of the ancient wooden pagoda to reduce wind loads and mitigate wind-induced structural damage. In this study, the wind tunnel experiments on the wooden pagoda are conducted to verify the feasibility of reducing the wind loads for the high-rise ancient wooden pagoda. A large-scale rigid model with 1∶50 was made based on a Yingxian wooden pagoda in Shanxi Province, China. The wind tunnel tests of the wooden pagoda with artificial forestry were conducted and the wind pressure distributions of the pagoda were investigated. Furthermore, the wind story forces and overturning moments of the wooden pagoda with various tree heights, distances between the forest and pagoda, and tree widths were calculated. The base shear forces and overturning moments were also discussed. The test results show that artificial forest planting can reduce the wind pressure of the pagoda surfaces in the height range of the forest shelter and on the crossward and leeward out of the height range of the forest shelter. Moreover, the tree height is a critical condition for reducing the pagoda wind loads by artificial forest planting, and taller trees make better effects. The analysis reveals that tall and large trees should be used in forest planting. The planted forest should be close to the pagoda and also be arranged as wide as possible. This study verifies the feasibility of reducing the wind pressures and loads for the high-rise ancient wooden pagoda via wind tunnel tests. It also provides a new idea for wind load reduction and wind-induced damage control of high-rise ancient wooden pagodas and can be a technical option for structural protection.