Comparative study of full-scale and model-scale wind pressure measurements on a gable roof low-rise building

A full-scale experimental low-rise building with gable roof was constructed in a typhoon-prone area in China, aiming to study the wind effects on a typical low-rise building during tropical cyclones. Meanwhile, it was also intended to provide reliable full-scale measurements for verification of widely used simulation techniques, such as wind tunnel testing and numerical simulation. This paper presents a detailed comparative study of the wind effects on the experimental building between the full-scale measurements during six tropical cyclones and the wind tunnel test results on a 1:50 scaled model of the low-rise building, including point pressure coefficients, area-averaged pressure coefficients and wind pressure probability density functions. The model-scale and full-scale mean pressure coefficients exhibits a good agreement. However, significant differences are found for the root-mean-square (RMS) and peak negative pressure coefficients on the gable end roof under oblique winds. The probable causes for these discrepancies including inadequacy of large-scale turbulence, mismatch of Reynolds number and elevation angles (vertical wind angle of attack) in the wind tunnel test are explored based on the field measurements. •Comparison of full- and model-scale wind pressures on a gable roof low-rise building.•Effects of turbulence scale, Reynolds number and elevation angles on the roof pressures are explored.•Probable reasons for discrepancies between the full and model-scale results are discussed.•Providing field measurements for validation of wind tunnel and numerical simulations.