The influence of vertical ribs on the local cladding pressure of high-rise buildings was investigated. The distribution characteristics of mean wind pressure and fluctuating wind pressure of high-rise buildings with different rib configurations were studied via wind tunnel tests. The variation of power spectra and proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) mode was analyzed. The non-Gaussian characteristics of wind pressure caused by the arrangement of vertical ribs were discussed. Finally

the extreme wind pressure coefficients in different cases were presented. Results show that there were no distinctions between the mean wind pressure

fluctuating wind pressure

and extreme wind pressure on the windward side when ribs were installed. While at the leading edge above the rib boundary on the side face

the mean value

fluctuating value

and extreme value of negative pressure increased

and those in other regions decreased. According to POD

the crosswind aerodynamic force contributed most significantly to the energy of the wind field. The installment of ribs decreased the power spectrum peak of first-order principal coordinate and increased the modal value of the leading edge regions above the rib boundary. The number of taps with non-Gaussian distribution on the side face decreased after the installation of ribs

while there was no evident change on the leeward side. The discrepancies were minor in the local pressure characteristics between half-distributed and full-distributed cases

indicating that ribs in the middle have little influence on the local cladding pressure.