The UWO contribution to the NIST aerodynamic database for wind loads on low buildings: Part 1. Archiving format and basic aerodynamic data

Wind tunnel testing of generic low building models has been carried out at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) in support of an initiative by Texas Tech University (TTU) and the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to create an aerodynamic database for low building design. This paper describes the background of the project, the basic models, testing configurations, the wind simulation, the standard archival format for distribution of the data, and a basic analysis of the data. Part 2 presents a detailed comparison of the data with existing wind load provisions in building codes.Basic quality checks of the data are made via limited comparisons among the data obtained during this study. Parametric comparisons based on roof slope, building height and building plan dimension show that the data obtained within this study are consistent with the expected aerodynamic behaviour. Comparisons with full scale TTU data show that the wind tunnel tests match the full-scale reasonably well, but cannot reproduce the largest of the peak point suctions near roof edges.