Analysis of full-scale wind and pressure measurements on a low-rise building

Significance of full-scale experiments, analyzing wind and pressure fields in the proximity or on low-rise buildings, is evident from the attention that has been dedicated by researchers to these programs in the recent past. In the south and southeastern regions of US this problem is of particular relevance due to the presence of hurricanes and high-speed winds. This paper presents some recent results derived from a three-year monitoring of a structure located near the coast of North Carolina.In the first part of this study, attention is devoted to the characterization of the wind field around an instrumented house; a comprehensive investigation on wind velocity and turbulence characteristics during the passage of three tropical storms and other significant events is summarized. In the second part, results associated with the meteorological studies are used to assist the interpretation of pressure time histories related to such extreme events.Analyses associated with the derivation of normalized pressure coefficients were concentrated on the identification of direction-dependent pressure characteristics, correlation among consecutive taps and potential effects of the wind unsteadiness on the maximum and minimum values. Building geometry and local topography effects had an important and direct influence on these analyses.