KNOWLEDGE-BASED WIND LOADING FOR ENVELOPE DESIGN - BEYOND BUILDING CODES

Wind loading is one of the most sophisticated requirements in building envelope design. The importance of wind loading depends on a number of factors such as building dimensions and geometries, surroundings, terrains and wind conditions. The evaluation process for wind loading on buildings, usually laborious and error-prone, could be automated by using computer tools. This paper refers to a knowledge-based expert system developed for the estimation of the wind loading on low buildings of various roof geometries. The domain knowledge of wind loading is generated not only from the provisions of building codes, but also from wind-tunnel experimental results and literature information, The general structure of the system and development strategies are briefly discussed in this paper. Application examples are provided to illustrate the implementation of the system for the design of building envelope, particularly the roofs of low buildings.