Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The applicant's research in the area of wind effects on buildings and their codification has been influential in the development of wind standards and building codes of practice not only in Canada but also in other countries. The proposal for this discovery grant intends to continue or initiate experimental and computational research in the following areas:- Wind pressure loads on buildings with particular emphasis on the effect of different plan view shapes, structural systems, internal pressures and the influence of the upstream exposure , which is still considered in an almost rudimentary way in most wind standards and codes of practice. Sub-projects will concentrate on the evaluation of wind loads on appendages such as rooftop solar equipment (collectors, photovoltaics, turbines) and other architectural details, which are extremely difficult to model in the wind tunnel due to scaling conditions; pressure measurements on pressure-equalized rain-screen walls and the development of an analytical tool to evaluate the cavity pressures.- Experimental and computational evaluation of wind environmental flows in the building surroundings with emphasis on the complex process of codification of dispersion / re-ingestion of pollutants in the building/urban environment, as well as natural and hybrid ventilation, which is very important towards the materialization of the environmentally-friendly green building design concept.- Interaction of snow, wind and buildings with emphasis on snow dispersion and accumulation processes, as well as the improvement of the present state-of-the-art techniques in the design process. The research results will continue being useful to the profession (practicing structural engineers, design professionals and architects) either directly in terms of reliable and easy-to-use design guidelines or indirectly, through provisions incorporated in codes and standards.