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Numerical and Experimental Investigations for Wind Uplift Force on Flat Roofing System

The development of the construction industry brought the new methods of structural design, which have been introduced to engineers, although overall this phenomenon has increased building costs. A cost-effective construction is one of the major decision points during the definition of any engineering project, therefore, due to the opposing concepts of these two statements, revising design standards and codes are essential in order to provide adequate and cost-effective design requirements.
A single-ply roof system is a relatively new method of roof construction that has been used in the building industry in recent decades, which seems to have undergone dramatic changes due to significant structural failures that have occurred through the years. Wind-induced damage on flat roofs is a common problem for low-rise buildings and much of this damage is initiated when the steel deck roof fails, leading to the overall roofing system collapse. The FM (Factory Mutual) design recommendations, which is a standard that recommends allowable dimensions and wind rating for the roofing products, have provided tabulated steel deck span dimensions and fasteners distance for many years. To update the FM design recommendations extensive experimental and analytical investigations are required. In the current study an experimental program was conducted at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) on flat roofing systems, for simulating the wind uplift effect on several roofing systems samples, as recommended by FM design recommendations.
A Finite Element Model (FEM) of the same roofing systems as those used in the experimental cases was developed and different loading patterns were analysed for providing a better simulation of the deflection, moments and forces responses, as measured during the experiments. The FEM was validated with the experimental results and was further employed for applying the FE analysis for more steel deck span dimensions and wind rating cases, as provided in the FM design recommendations tables.
These results were reported to the Single Ply Roof Industry (SPRI) Committee where the updating of the FM design tables is currently under discussion.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/34265
Date January 2016
CreatorsDayani, Nima
ContributorsDragomirescu, Elena
PublisherUniversité d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Source SetsUniversité d’Ottawa
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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