Design wind loads for beams supporting flat roofs

Abstract This paper describes a simple method for evaluating the design wind loads for beams supporting flat roofs. A series of wind tunnel tests for measuring wind pressures on flat roofs were carried out, and dynamic wind pressures were measured simultaneously at some hundred points on the roofs. The instantaneous stresses and displacements of beams were directly calculated from these data, and the maximum load effects were evaluated. The equivalent design pressure coefficients which reproduce the maximum load effects are proposed, and the gust factors of the load effects are compared with the quasi-static assumptions. The various characteristics of the gust factors of load effects are discussed.