ABSTRACT
For the purposes of this chapter, low-rise buildings are defined as roofed low-rise structures less than 15 m in height. However, resonant dynamic effects can normally be neglected for smaller buildings. The chapter discusses the history of research on wind loads on low-rise buildings, the general characteristics of wind pressures and model scaling criteria, and a summary of the results of the many studies that were carried out in the 1970s-1990s. Similar flow separation and re-attachment, as described for roofs, occurs on the side walls of low-rise buildings, although the magnitude of the mean pressure coefficients is generally lower. The spatial structure of fluctuating pressures on low-rise buildings has been investigated in detail, using a technique known as 'proper orthogonal decomposition'. For the low-rise buildings under discussion in this chapter, resonant effects can be ignored, but the fluctuating, or background loading is quite significant because of the high turbulence intensities near the ground.
