Towards a reliable design of facade and roof elements against wind loading

The most vulnerable parts of buildings with respect to wind loading are facades and roofs. Current standards on wind loading provide data to determine design loads for the elements in facades and roofs. These data are available for a limited number of simple building shapes. Up to now there is no common procedure to determine local loads for situations not covered by our codes, e.g. by applying wind tunnel data. Secondly, the effects of pressure equalization are not covered completely in our current generation of wind loading codes. Thirdly, in densely populated areas, the influence of nearby buildings on the local loads is very important. No design rules are available, and wind tunnel measurements are the only reliable technique available. This paper discusses the consequences of these three aspects, and gives recommendations on where to focus future research with respect to the reliability of the local wind loads