Damage estimation of roof panels considering wind loading correlation

Roof panels on light wood-frame building roofs are very vulnerable to high winds. Once the roof is breached, a series of consequences will occur, including the rainwater penetration and dangerous projectiles originating from blown panels. Damage mitigation and risk management require a better estimation of wind-induced damage on roof panels. In this study, a data-based wind damage estimation method considering wind loading correlation is developed for roof panels. This method is composed of three steps. Firstly, the peak uplift force on roof panels is estimated by Hermite polynomial model-based translation process method. Then the correlation of peak uplift forces is incorporated by Nataf transformation. Finally, the failure probability of a single panel and the damage ratio of panels on the whole roof are estimated by either the numerical method or Monte Carlo simulation. A numerical example demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method. The importance of the correlation of wind loading on the wind damage estimation for roof panels is highlighted. Note that the proposed method can be extended to damage estimation for other roof components such as shingles when the wind loading correlation is included.