Structurally Effective Static Wind Loads for Roof Panels

A detailed comparison of the recent full-scale tests conducted at Mississippi State University (MSU) using simulated wind loads on a portion of a standing seam metal roof and model-scale wind tunnel tests carried out at the University of Western Ontario of an aeroelastic “failure” model of the same roof system is presented. In spite of the significantly different approaches, the results obtained were remarkably consistent. The tests suggest that, at the roof corner, the E1592 uniform pressure test contains conservatism of about 50% for the roof system tested by both approaches; and up to about 80% for the other roof systems tested only at MSU. This conservatism arises if the roof system is required to withstand the code-recommended pressure applied as uniform pressure in the E1592 test, without accounting for the reality of the dynamic spatially varying properties of the wind-induced pressures. In general, the tests also suggest that influence surface approaches together with experimentally measured pressure distributions provide an excellent way of determining the effective loads on various components.