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Article

Open Access

Reduction of Wind Loads on Ventilated Exterior Wall System Due to Gaps Provided in the Outer Wall

Author(s)

Yasushi Uematsu1 and Keijiro Hosokawa2

Full-Text PDF Download XML 7 Views

DOI:10.17265/1934-7359/2025.12.002

Affiliation(s)

1. New Industry Creation Hatchery Center, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8579, Japan 2. NTT Urban Development, Tokyo 101-0021, Japan

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates wind load reduction of ventilated exterior wall system, which has a ventilation layer behind the outer wall, by installing equally spaced horizontal gaps in the outer wall. The wind force on the outer wall is provided by the difference between the external pressure and the pressure in the ventilation layer (layer pressure). The gaps reduce the net wind forces on the outer wall due to pressure equalization. External pressures are obtained from a wind tunnel experiment using a scale model of the building, while the layer pressures are obtained from a numerical simulation using the unsteady Bernoulli equation applied to the gap flows and the cavity flows in the ventilation layer. The effects of gap widthg and gap spacingsQUOTE g on the layer pressures are examined. The results indicate that the larger the gap width and/or the smaller the gap spacing, the greater the reduction in wind forces on the outer wall. However, the layer pressures, which act on the interior wall as external pressures, increase in magnitude. Discussion is made of the optimal combination ofg ands, which effectively reduces the wind forces on the outer wall without increasing the magnitude of layer pressures as much.

KEYWORDS

Ventilated exterior wall system, wind load, gap, wind tunnel experiment, numerical simulation, unsteady Bernoulli equation, pressure equalization

Cite this paper

Yasushi Uematsu, Keijiro Hosokawa. (2025). Reduction of Wind Loads on Ventilated Exterior Wall System Due to Gaps Provided in the Outer Wall. Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture, December 2025, Vol. 19, No. 12, 572-582.

References

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