Experimental assessment of wind loads on architectural screens and associated shielding effects on roof-mounted equipment

Abstract

The use of architectural screens on the roofs of buildings is required in many urban planning/zoning requirements to hide roof-mounted equipment (RME) from view for aesthetic purposes. The current paper investigates the wind loads on architectural screens and their effect on the wind loads of the RME they surround. This was accomplished by using a full-scale wind tunnel, examining various parameters such as net free area (NFA), screen opening style, roof location, height ratios between RME and screen walls, and different screen configurations, including fully and partially enclosed designs. Findings indicate that wind loads on RME enclosed by architectural screens are significantly lower than those prescribed by ASCE 7-22 (2022). Additionally, wind loads for all tested architectural screens fall within the lateral design coefficients specified in ASCE 7-22 (2022) for RME wind loads. However, no reduction in RME wind loads is observed for partial screen configurations compared to cases without screens. The study also finds that architectural screen wind loads are independent of screen style and NFA, behaving similarly to solid screens. This suggests that future wind load testing can be conducted using solid models, simplifying experimental procedures and making scaled wind tunnel testing of architectural screens more practical.