Correlation of internal and external pressures and net pressure factors for cladding design

Net pressures on roofs and walls of buildings are dependent on the internal and external pressure fluctuations. The variation of internal and external pressures are influenced by the size and location of the openings. The correlation of external and internal pressure influences the net pressures acting on cladding on different parts of the roof and walls. The peak internal and peak external pressures do not occur simultaneously, therefore, a reduction can be applied to the peak internal and external pressures to obtain a peak net pressure for cladding design. A 1:200 scale wind tunnel model study was conducted to determine the correlations of external and internal pressures and effective reduction to net pressures (i.e., net pressure factors, F_C) for roof and wall cladding. The results show that external and internal pressures on the windward roof and wall edges are well correlated. The largest ${\mathcal{C}}_{{\check{p},net}$, highest correlation coefficient and the highest F_C are obtained for different wind directions within 90° ≤ θ ≤ 135°, where the large openings are on the windward wall. The study also gives net pressure factors F_C for areas on the roof and wall cladding for nominally sealed buildings and the buildings with a large windward wall opening. These factors indicate that a 5% to 10% reduction to the action combination factor, K_C specified in AS/NZS 1170.2(2011) is possible for some critical design scenarios.