In high-rise buildings, the excessive pressure differences cause various problems, and architectural and mechanical measures are always applied. In this study, pressure measurements on a 67-story high-rise building were conducted to evaluate the effect of mechanical pressurization on the pressure distribution. Absolute pressure measurement devices were installed at 28 points on 10 floors, a full-scale pressure profile of the test building was derived, and the pressure distributions on the main floors were reviewed. Four pressurization modes for the test building were considered, and the variation in the pressure distribution for each mode was analyzed. The results showed that mechanical pressurization reduced the pressure difference on the lobby floor by approximately 18%. Although it did not exert an apparent impact on the pressure difference due to the stack effect, pressurizing the entire floor serves as the most effective way of reducing the excessive pressure difference.

The commonly used conversion coefficient for natural infiltration rates (N) is derived from single-zone or low-rise building assumptions and therefore fails to account for the substantial pressure differences driven by building height and seasonal temperature variations. These induced pressure differences significantly impact on the variations in infiltration rates within high-rise buildings, particularly during heating and cooling seasons. Therefore, this study develops a floor-resolved methodology for deriving N in high-rise buildings under various seasonal conditions, through extending the effective leakage area (ELA) model and incorporating normalization procedures that reflect seasonal and environmental conditions. Application of this method to high-rise buildings in South Korea shows that both infiltration rates and N values at upper and lower floors exceed those near the neutral pressure level (NPL) by more than a factor of two under winter conditions. Moreover, the derived N values deviate substantially from the commonly assumed reference value of 20 and vary systematically with floor height and season. These findings indicate that using a uniform N value can lead to considerable errors in estimating infiltration and associated energy loads, underscoring the necessity of height- and climate-specific conversion coefficients for accurate energy performance assessment.