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Wind Loading Considerations for Buildings Explained


Published 31st January 2018
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Hello everyone, and welcome to my first blog post of the new year! I hope you’ve settled back into the swing of things and that 2018 is off to a great start for you so far.

In my last blog, we took a look at some of the general principles behind stability and the various types of stability systems that can be put into place.

A key factor of stability is the ability of a building to withstand lateral pressures. Here in the UK, one of the major causes of lateral pressure is wind loading. When we refer to it, we normally use the BS EN 1991-1-4 Wind Actions code.

Design engineers need to consider a wide range of factors such as the local environment around the building, the choice of cladding materials, whether there are any adjacent buildings and whether there are any major openings. This information will then be used to calculate the wind pressure for a stability analysis.

Most low and medium rise buildings of 15 storeys or less exhibit a less dynamic response to wind. When it comes to designing large scale high rise buildings like The Shard or the Burj Khalifa, wind pressures are of paramount importance.

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The Shard

These buildings are generally tall, slender structures and so they’re more prone to the dynamic effects of wind. These eye-catching structures’ lateral stability systems are undertaken by engineers with specialist experience.

These engineers consider a wide variety of factors, including:

  • Load paths
  • Horizontal stability systems
  • Vertical stability systems

About LSY

Here at LSY, we’re used to dealing with wind loading considerations and stability. In fact, we’ll be discussing it in more detail in future articles, so keep your eyes peeled if you’d like to learn more. We’re working on numerous building structure projects throughout the UK and Ireland, and so if you’d like to discuss any project requirements of your own then please feel free to contact us. We’ll be more than happy to help!