Measurements of Wind-driven Rain on Mid- and High-rise Buildings in three Canadian Regions

Abstract

Wind-driven rain (WDR) is an important boundary condition for the study of the hygrothermal behaviour and durability of building envelopes. Understanding the WDR characteristics is important for establishing designs that minimize moisture related issues. Three buildings located in three Canadian cities (Fredericton, Montreal and Vancouver) have been instrumented with equipment to quantify the WDR loads on building façades. This paper presents the experimental setup, spatial distribution of WDR on façades in terms of wall factors, and the comparison between measurements and calculated WDR using the standard ISO 15927. The preliminary results show that the ISO model overestimates the WDR amount most of the time.