Claddings are susceptible to damage due to underestimation of extreme windinduced surface pressures. Commonly accepted methods for estimating the peak factor (an input used to determine cladding design loads) involve complex calculationintensive procedures. This research develops a four-parameter unified auto-spectral model of wind pressure to simplify peak factor estimation of wind-induced surface pressure via analysis of wind tunnel wind load data on tri-centered cylindrical roofs.Values of the model parameters were identified via statistical analysis of wind tunnel wind pressure measurement on two long-span tri-centered cylindrical roof structures with different curvatures. The study identified roof regions with non-Gaussian features by inspecting probabilistic density functions of the standardized wind-induced roof pressures and the third-and fourth-order statistical moments of wind pressure time histories. The paper ultimately proposed and evaluated a simplified method for estimating the peak factors in the non-Gaussian regions, the Three-parameter Hermite Model, derived through the moment-based Hermite Model, the Revised Hermite Model, and the parameter simplification accomplished in this study. The results show that the auto-spectral model of wind-induced roof pressures can accurately estimate the zero-and second-order spectral moments, which reflects the wind pressure fluctuating characteristics and geometric features of spectral curves.Compared with the peak factors of the moment-based Hermite Model and the Revised Hermite Model, the peak factor errors estimated by the Three-parameter Hermite Model are all less than 10%. These results suggest that the Three-parameter Hermite Model simplifies the calculation with acceptable accuracy.long-span tri-centered cylindrical roof structure, non-Gaussian features, peak factor, peak factor estimation method, wind pressure spectrum model, wind tunnel test
| INTRODUCTIONExtreme wind load on the roof cladding of long-span structures is usually the key concern in structural design. Hence, accurate estimation of extreme wind load on the roof surface is an essential prerequisite for performance-based design of long-span roof structures. Based on the peak factor estimation method proposed by Davenport, [1] a peak factor of 2.5 is stipulated in the Chinese code GB50009-2012. [2] However, the separation flow and reattachment lead to the significant non-Gaussian characteristics of the wind pressure in the local zones, such as the windward edge, roof corner, and leeward side, leading to an obvious increase in the peak factor. [3][4][5][6][7]