Interference effects on wind loads of gable-roof buildings with different roof slopes

Abstract

The influence of roof slope and building spacing on wind interference effects is investigated in a group of low-rise gable-roof buildings with wind tunnel test. When the wind direction is perpendicular to the roof ridge, wind suctions on the gable roof of 10° in the central and downstream building are significantly reduced. When the roof slope is 35°, notable increase in wind suctions on the upstream and central building appears when the spacing ratio is smaller than 2.0. When the roof slope is 10°, the minimum interference factors (IF) of the most unfavorable suctions on the edge and central buildings are 0.36 and 0.26 respectively. When the roof slope is 35°, middle roof-ridge area of the edge building away from the central building displays significant amplification when the spacing ratio ranges from 0.25 to 4.0. Other roof ridge area experiences shielding effects, and the minimum IF is smaller than 0.7. For the central building, the roof corner area experiences amplification effects, and other roof areas exhibit obvious shielding effects when the spacing ratio is smaller than 1.0. IFs in the middle roof area change from around 0.8 to 1.4 when the spacing ratio increases from 1.0 to 3.0.