Field monitoring and wind tunnel study of wind effects on roof overhang of a low‐rise building

Abstract

Roof overhang is one of the most easily damaged parts of low-rise buildings during windstorms. To investigate the wind-induced pressure distributions and forces on the roof overhang of a typical low-rise building, field monitoring during two typhoons and detailed wind tunnel test are conducted in this paper. Correlation analysis is performed to analyze the wind pressures on the upper and lower surfaces of the roof overhang. Moreover, cross-comparisons among the wind tunnel testing results, full-scale measurements, and design provisions are made for validation purposes. The comparative study illustrates that the model-scale experimental results of wind pressure coefficients, lift, and bending moment coefficients on the roof overhang are generally in reasonable agreement with the full-scale measurements, except for the peak negative pressure coefficients and lift coefficients for several wind directions. In addition, it is observed that the suctions on the roof overhang determined from the wind tunnel test and the full-scale measurements are lower than those stipulated in ASCE 7-16. The combined field measurement and model testing study aims to further understand the wind effects on roof overhang during windstorms and improve the wind-resistant design of low-rise buildings in tropic cyclone-prone regions.