Uplift Vulnerability Analysis of Roofing Tiles for Traditional Chinese Timber Buildings Under Strong Wind

A noticeable feature of the traditional timber buildings are the giant roofs with overhanging eaves and swooping edges. The roofs can lead to huge wind loads and complex load distributions on the building surface, especially on corners and edges of the roof. The wind-induced damage of those buildings always starts from the lifting up of roofing tiles. In order to understand the roof damage mechanism of traditional Chinese timber buildings and prevent them from wind hazards, this study introduces a simulation-based methodology to evaluate the vulnerability of roofing tiles under various wind directions and speed levels. Wind pressure on the roof is first obtained using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation. Based on Monte-Carlo method, the ‘heat map’ of failure probability of roof tiles and failure probability curves of the tile at incremental wind speed are plotted. This study is of great significance to help better understand the wind-induced damage characteristics and probabilities of the roof of the traditional Chinese timber building, and also to raise the attention to the wind risk of built heritage which is often overlooked in comparison with other hazards.