Multi-objective equivalent static wind loads for large span roofs

The determination of equivalent static wind loads (ESWL) for large span roofs is a difficult problem in theoretical research of structural wind engineering. According to the characteristics of spatial structures, a new method was proposed to obtain ESWL for multiple equivalent objectives. First, a multi-objective equivalent equation was proposed to make the ESWL capture the maximum load effects of structure at the same time. Then a constraint equation related to the direction of wind loads was constructed in order to reduce the dimension of ESWL vector and to exclude some unrealistic and curious load distributions. At last, the method was applied to two typical large span roofs combined with wind tunnel tests. The results show that the maximum load effects captured by the ESWL agree well with those directly estimated by frequency domain response analysis. As a result, only few ESWL with clear physical meaning are needed to obtain all responses with sufficient accuracy.