Investigation of the Pressure Coefficients Correlation Field for Low-Rise Building Roofs

Abstract

The use of hyperbolic paraboloid roofing (HPRs) is increasingly common in contemporary architecture, especially for buildings with large spans, making use of tensile structures or light shells. These structures are very sensitive to wind loads because of their light weight. In particular, they tend to oscillate under wind action, generating complex pressure distributions and cable instability. Therefore, for this shape structure, the investigation of wind-pressure coefficients correlations plays a relevant role in the design of structural elements. Therefore, based on wind tunnel tests, this paper investigates the behavior of four rectangular low-rise building models with HPR when immersed in a turbulent boundary layer flow. The test results were synthesized in correlation maps of the pressure coefficients. The results were evaluated as functions of different model heights and curvatures, and considering three different angles of wind incidence (0°, 45°, and 90°).