Wind loads on low-rise building models with different roof configurations

Wind tunnel testing of low-rise building models with flat, gabled and hip roof configurations was carried out in a boundary layer wind tunnel. All the models had the same mean height. For the gabled and the hip roofs, the pitch angles investigated were 15, 20, 30 and 45°. Pressure measurements were performed on all the walls and the roof of the building models facing a turbulent wind of 7 m/s and the values of pressure coefficient were calculated. It was found that the suction over the roof is significantly influenced by the roof configuration. The 45° gabled and hip building models performed the best under the same wind conditions. The peak suction over the roof reduces by 85 and 91%, respectively, compared to that over the flat roof. In addition to this, the hip roof models recorded less suction compared to their gabled counterparts. For the hip roof, the peak suction reduced by 42% compared to the gabled roof.

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