Characteristics of wind loads acting on complex long-span roof structure

The Shenzhen New Railway Station (SNRS) has roof dimensions of 450 m long and 408 m wide. This paper presents the results of wind loads acting on the large-span roof structure. In the wind tunnel test, wind-induced pressures including mean and fluctuating components were measured from the roof of a 1:200 scale SNRS model under suburban boundary layer wind flow configuration in a boundary layer wind tunnel of HD-2 at Hunan University. Based on the data obtained simultaneously from the wind tunnel tests, the distributions of the mean and fluctuating wind pressure coefficients and the characteristics of probability density functions of wind pressures of typical pressure taps were analyzed in detailed. The outcomes of the experimental study indicate that: (1) The maximum mean negative wind pressure coefficients on the roof occur at the windward leading edge region, where the maximum fluctuating wind pressure coefficients occur also in this region; (2) There are some differences of the maximum mean negative wind pressure coefficients and RMS wind pressure coefficients under conditions with different number of trains inside the station, but such effects on the overall pressure distributions on the whole roof are negligible; (3) There are clearly negative skewed distributions for some pressure taps at the windward leading roof edge and much longer negative tails are observed, which follow Non-Gaussian distributions. The results presented in this paper are expected to be of considerable interest and of use to researchers and professionals involved in designing complex long-span roof structures. © (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.