A comprehensive review on estimation of equivalent static wind loads on long-span roofs

Abstract

Equivalent static wind load (ESWL) is helpful information for designing wind-sensitive structures since it converts complex wind-induced structural dynamic analysis into a simplified static analysis and facilitates combination of other loads or actions in structural designs. In recent years, there have been a growing number of long-span roof structures, most of which are sensitive to wind actions. Indeed, the accurate determination of ESWLs has been a primary concern in their wind-resistant design. Although some significant progress has been made on this topic, there are various issues to be addressed or improved due to a variety of reasons. With the further development of long-span roofs, there will be higher requirements for their ESWLs. This paper first combs through the existing representative methods depending on wind-induced structural responses (WISRs) and wind-induced structural stability (WISS), where the ESWLs linked with the former are the mainstream and the ones concerned with the latter are still somewhat in their initial stages of development. In each broad category, some momentous tactics of mathematics and mechanics are utilized to derive different methods. In the conclusion, this paper finally summarizes the existing achievements, highlights the technical challenges that hinder the current methods from being widely adopted and proposes some latent solutions for the future research. This review paper is anticipated to be a comprehensive reference for researchers and professionals in this field of study.