Comparison of Wind Tunnel Test Data for Low-Rise Buildings with Main Wind Force Resisting System Design Procedures

The adequacy of the directional and envelope procedures for the design of the main wind force resisting system is not well understood. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the directional and envelope procedures based on wind tunnel test data for a set of low-rise enclosed buildings with gable-shaped roofs in open terrain (Exposure C). The base shear force and the conditional reliability index are used to determine the adequacy of the procedures. The base shear was compared to the design base shear in each direction based on the horizontal component of the wind load on the wall and roof. The reliability index, β conditional on the occurrence of the design wind speed was computed for a range of system capacities. The main findings are (1) the directional procedure produced a larger design base shear compared to the envelope procedure, primarily due to the difference in external pressure coefficients, (2) the directional procedure provided a higher β, and (3) the envelope procedure provided a β that did not meet the standard target β equal to 3.0 for the main wind force resisting systems with low variability in capacity, but neither procedure met the standard target β for the main wind force resisting systems with high variability in capacity.

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