Effect of geometry on wind pressures on low-rise hip roof buildings

Abstract

A Texas Tech University building model at a geometric scale of 1:50 was tested under simulated atmospheric boundary layer conditions for calibration of this experiment. Overall six hip roof building models with roof pitch of 30° were constructed on 1:50 scale. Out of six, three were with overhang ratio 0.17, 0.26 and 0.38 (overhangs 0.5, 0.75 and 1.1 m) respectively for constant height aspect ratio 0.4 and the rest three were with height aspect ratio 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6 m, respectively, for constant overhang ratio 0.38. Overhang ratios were varied from 0.17 to 0.38 while height aspect ratios varied from 0.4 to 0.6 in the wind tunnel testing to investigate wind pressure distribution over hip roofs and the effect of overhang and aspect ratios on roof pressures. Both the overhang and aspect ratio were found to influence the magnitude and distribution of pressures on hip roof. The model with overhang ratio 0.26 amongst the first three models and the model with aspect ratio 0.6 amongst the next three models have been found to experience maximum negative peak pressure ( C pmin).