Prediction of negative peak wind pressures on roofs of low-rise building

In this paper, a probability distribution which is consistent with the observed phenomenon at the roof corner and, also on other portions of the roof, of a low-rise building is proposed. The model is consistent with the choice of probability density function suggested by the statistical thermodynamics of open systems and turbulence modelling in fluid mechanics. After presenting the justification based on physical phenomenon and based on statistical arguments, the fit of alpha-stable distribution for prediction of extreme negative wind pressure coefficients is explored. The predictions are compared with those actually observed during wind tunnel experiments (using wind tunnel experimental data obtained from the aerodynamic database of Tokyo Polytechnic University), and those predicted by using Gumbel minimum and Hermite polynomial model. The predictions are also compared with those estimated using a recently proposed non-parametric model in regions where stability criterion (in skewness-kurtosis space) is satisfied. From the comparisons, it is noted that the proposed model can be used to estimate the extreme peak negative wind pressure coefficients. The model has an advantage that it is consistent with the physical processes proposed in the literature for explaining large fluctuations at the roof corners.