THE FULL-SCALE SIGNIFICANCE, ON GLASS CLADDING PANELS, OF DATA OBTAINED FROM WIND-TUNNEL MEASUREMENTS OF PRESSURE-FLUCTUATIONS ON BUILDING CLADDING

This paper presents the interim results of a study into the significan ce, in full scale, of wind tunnel measurements of pressure fluctuation s on building cladding. These interim results have shown that the limi tations in the frequency response of the pressure tapping tubes, can r esult in significant errors if direct integration of wind tunnel data is used to determine the design wind pressures for the building claddi ng, if the cladding has a high frequency response. However, it has bee n found that the practise of taking the peak pressures determined from the wind tunnel measurements, within the equivalent full-scale period of 1 h for a frequency response of 1 Hz, to be equivalent to 3 s cons tant pressures for the purpose of design, may be adequate for 15 min s torm duration but may not be adequate for much longer storm duration. It is concluded that it is important that the probability distribution s need to be more accurately determined than the current methods used, to minimise possible errors, and that further work is required to det ermine the frequency response of glass cladding panels.