Experimental Study on the Influence of Pressure Distribution and Non-Gaussian Characteristics on a Large-Span Roof by Surrounding Buildings

Large-span roofs are typical wind sensitive structures. The construction of large-span roofs often leads to the development of surrounding buildings, which will significantly change the environments of large-span roofs. These buildings often operate in different sites throughout their entire life cycle, including being in open country (OC) and surrounded by buildings (SBB). This study conducted a series of pressure measurement wind tunnel tests for wind load designs. It focuses mainly on the wind pressure distribution, non-Gaussian characteristics, and the extreme wind pressure at different sites. Experimental results indicate that the wind loads on the large roofs at different sites depend on the wind directions. The surrounding buildings in the direction of the incoming flow will lead to a decrease in the mean wind pressure coefficients, but will result in a larger area of high fluctuating wind pressure coefficients. When there is few buildings in the incoming flow direction, the mean and fluctuating wind pressure coefficients of the large-span roofs at different environmental sites are almost the same. The most unfavorable extreme wind pressure coefficient in the outer region of the large-span roof occurs mainly at OC site, while the most unfavorable extreme wind pressure coefficients in the inner region will occur at both sites, but the absolute values are relatively small.