Experimental study of wind loads on gable roofs of low-rise buildings with overhangs

Abstract

Gable roofs with overhangs (eaves) are the common constructions of low-rise buildings on the southeastern coast of China, and they were vulnerable to typhoons from experience. The wind pressure distributions on gable roofs of low-rise buildings are investigated by a series of wind tunnel tests which consist of 99 test cases with various roof pitches, height-depth ratios and width-depth ratios. The block pressure coefficients and worst negative (block) pressure coefficients on different roof regions of low-rise buildings are proposed for the main structure and building envelope, respectively. The effects of roof pitch, height-depth ratio, and width-depth ratio on the pressure coefficients of each region are analyzed in detail. In addition, the pressure coefficients on the roofs for the main structure and building envelope are fitted according to roof pitch, height-depth ratio and width-depth ratio of the low-rise building. Meanwhile, the rationality of the fitting formulas is verified by comparing the fitting results with the codes of different countries. Lastly, the block pressure coefficients and worst negative pressure coefficients are recommended to guide the design of low-rise buildings in typhoon area and act as references for the future’s modification of wind load codes.

Keywords

low-rise building / gable roof / wind loads / wind tunnel test / block pressure coefficient / load code

References

[1] Cao S Y, Ge Y J, Tamura Y. Wind damage in China caused by Typhoon Rananim. Proceedings of the Sixth Asia-Pacific Conference on Wind Engineering, Seoul, Korea, 2005

[2] Stathopoulos T. Turbulent wind action on low-rise buildings. Dissertation for PhD degree. University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, 1979

[3] Holmes J D. Wind pressures on tropical housing. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 1994, 53(1–2): 105–123

[4] Meecham D, Surry D, Davenport A G. The magnitude and distribution of wind-induced pressures on hip and gable roofs. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 1991, 38(2–3): 257–272

[5] Xu Y L, Reardon G F. Variations of wind pressure on hip roofs with roof pitch. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 1998, 73(3): 267–284

[6] Uematsu Y, Isyumov N. Wind pressures acting on low-rise buildings. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 1999, 82(1–3): 1–25

[7] Gavanski E, Kordi B, Kopp G A, Vickery P J. Wind loads on roof sheathing of houses. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 2013, 114: 106–121

[8] Huang P, Gu M, Jia C G, Quan D L. Field measurement of wind effects of roof accessory structures on gable-roofed low-rise building. International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, 2013, 731572

[9] Gerhardt H J, Kramer C. Effects of building geometry on roof wind loading. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 1992, 43(1–3): 1765–1773

[10] Krishna P. Wind loads on low rise buildings—A review. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 1995, 54–55: 383–396

[11] Ginger J D, Holmes J D. Wind loads on long, low-rise buildings. Proceedings of the 5th Asia Pacific Conference on Wind Engineering, Kyoto, Japan, 2001, 529–532

[12] Kanda M, Maruta E. Characteristics of fluctuating wind pressure on long low-rise buildings with gable roofs. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 1993, 50: 173–182

[13] Ginger J D, Holmes J D. Effect of building length on wind loads on low-rise buildings with a steep roof pitch. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 2003, 91(11): 1377–1400

[14] Ho T C E, Surry D, Morrish D, Kopp G A. The UWO contribution to the NIST aerodynamic database for wind loads on low buildings: Part 1. Archiving format and basic aerodynamic data. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 2005, 93(1): 1–30

[15] Robertson A P. Effect of eaves detail on wind pressures over an industrial building. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 1991, 38(2–3): 325–333

[16] Stathopoulos T, Luchian H. Wind-induced forces on eaves of low buildings. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 1994, 52: 249–261

[17] Savory D J. Digital terrain classification via scale-sensitive edge detection: hillslope characterization for soil-landscape analysis. University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1992

[18] Ahmad S, Kumar K. Wind pressures on low-rise hip roof buildings. Wind and Structures, 2002, 5(6): 493–514

[19] Huang P, Peng X L, Gu M. Aerodynamic devices to mitigate rooftop suctions on a gable roof building. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 2014a, 135: 90–104

[20] Huang P, Tao L, Gu M, Quan Y. Wind effects of architectural details on gable-roofed low-rise buildings in southeastern coast of China. Advances in Structural Engineering, 2014b, 17(11): 1551–1565

[21] Architectural Institute of Japan. Recommendations for loads on buildings, Architectural Institute of Japan, Tokyo, Japan

[22] ASCE/SEI 7. Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures. American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, USA, 2010

[23] AS/NZS 1170.2, 2002. Structural design actions, Part 2: Wind actions. Australian/New Zealand Standard, 2004

[24] International Standard. Bases for design of structures, loads, forces and other actions. Wind actions on structures, ISO 4354:2009, Technical Committee ISO/TC98, Subcommittee SC3, Switzerland, 2009

[25] National Standard of the People’s Republic of China. Load Code for the Design of Building Structures GB50009-2012 (English Edition). Beijing: China Building Industry Press, 2012

[26] Wang Y. Codification of wind pressure coefficients on claddings/components of low-rise buildings. Dissertation for Master degree. Shanghai: Tongji University, 2011

[27] Lawson T V. The design of cladding. Building and Environment, 1976, 11(1): 37–38

[28] Lawson T V. Wind Effects on Buildings: Design Applications. Barking: Applied Science Publishers, 1980

[29] Holmes J D. Equivalent time averaging in wind engineering. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 1997, 72: 411–419

[30] Uematsu Y, Isyumov N. Peak gust pressures acting on the roof and wall edges of a low-rise building. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 1998, 77–78: 217–231

[31] Sadek F, Simiu E. Peak non-Gaussian wind effects for database-assisted low-rise building design. Journal of Engineering Mechanics, 2002, 128: 530–539

[32] St. Pierre L M, Kopp G A, Surry D, Ho T C E. The UWO contribution to the NIST aerodynamic database for wind loads on low buildings: Part 2. Comparison of data with wind load provisions. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 2005, 93(1): 31–59

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51378396 and 51678452), which is gratefully acknowledged.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2018 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature