Wind Load

What is Wind Load?

The lateral and, on roofs, uplift forces a structure must be designed to resist from wind pressure acting on its exposed surfaces. Because that pressure scales with the square of wind speed, it grows dramatically in a storm, and for tall, slender buildings the resulting sway can matter as much as the raw stress it induces.

The five clues

Engineerdle #57 described Wind Load with five clues, revealed one at a time from hardest to most direct. Each clue points at a different property of the concept.

1. 01A load that pushes sideways as often as it pushes down.
2. 02It can also pull upward on a roof, not just push against a wall.
3. 03It scales with the square of wind speed, not linearly.
4. 04Tall, slender buildings are checked for how it makes them sway, not just how it stresses them.
5. 05The lateral and uplift forces a structure must resist due to wind pressure on its surfaces.

More Structural Engineering concepts

• Neutral AxisPuzzle #49
• Slenderness RatioPuzzle #40
• Moment Distribution MethodPuzzle #35