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Wind loading Codes of Practice are usually presented in the form of tables of pressure and force coefficients corresponding to buildings of typical dimensions and shapes. Pressure and force coefficients are obtained from wind tunnel tests on small scale models placed in a turbulent boundary layer of thickness greater than the building height. Most of the wind tunnel studies of low or medium rise buildings which have been undertaken to date consider only the case of an isolated building. The more realistic situation, one where neighboring buildings are incorporated in the modeling, is expected to yield lower overall mean pressure coefficients, albeit, in some cases, higher peak coefficients due to the higher turbulence. The intent of the present study is to examine this influence of surrounding buildings on the exterior pressure distribution. The present report describes the wind tunnel tests. It is complemented by a set of computer files containing the measured mean pressure values.
The procedure for studying the surrounding influence on the distribution of the pressure is the following:
- Definition of typical building shapes to be studied.
- Definition of typical built-up areas, such as typical Swiss quarters, to be placed around typical buildings.
- Wind-tunnel measurement of the distribution of pressure on an isolated building placed in a reference boundary layer.
- Wind-tunnel measurement of the distribution of pressure on the same building but placed in a typical quarter.