Study on localised wind pressure development in gable roof buildings having different roof pitches with experiments, RANS and LES simulation models

Results from the RANS show good agreement with the experimental results on pressure distribution when the building is subject to perpendicular wind directions. However, a significant improvement was found using LES over RANS in the prediction of near-building flow field and localised pressure under oblique wind directions but with an increased computational cost by a factor of more than 80. Furthermore, the high suction pressures are observed to be more critical on buildings with a lower roof pitch under both perpendicular and oblique wind directions. This indicates that a low roof pitch should be applied with caution especially in windstorm-prone areas.