Components and Cladding Wind Pressures on Flat Nonrectangular Roofs: Assessment and Comparison with Code Provisions

Buildings with rectangular plans were, in the past 50 years, the main focus in the wind engineering field. Consequently, the wind design provisions of rectangular buildings are well-established in the wind codes and standards. On the other hand, wind design provisions for nonrectangular buildings are generally not available in wind codes and standards. This paper investigates wind pressures on roofs of noncurved and nonrectangular buildings with four shapes, L, U, T, and X, with different plan dimensions and heights. The experimental results were analyzed and compared with the design provisions and guidelines of National Building Code of Canada and the American standard for rectangular buildings. It was found that the wind loads on the inner edges and corners are higher than those on the outer edges and corners of nonrectangular buildings. In addition, the comparison with NBCC indicated that design provisions are comparable to the experimental results in the corner zone and lower than the experimental peaks in the edge and interior zones. The experimental results also indicated that the size of the roof pressure zone is mainly dependent on the roof height. Furthermore, the comparison with the American standard showed that the standard design provisions are conservative.