A full-scale study of the geometric parameters that influence wind loads on low rise buildings

Abstract Full-scale agricultural and horticultural buildings have been instrumented with surface pressure sensors to measure wind loads under natural wind conditions. To show the effect of building geometry on wind loads, results are presented of pressure coefficients on a selection of these buildings. The results in this report relate to the transverse wind direction only. It is shown that, contrary to the premise used in many National Standards, wind load does not reduce to a function of the geometric variables of height/span and roof pitch. The effect of building eaves height, span, length and roof pitch are illustrated by examples but insufficient information is currently available to allow a generalised model to be proposed.