Wind-resistance performance investigation of 360° vertical seam-locked roof system reinforced by sliding support and sandwich panel

Abstract Metal roof destruction caused by severe weather seriously affects the safety and durability of buildings. Standing seam roof system, a kind of high efficiency and flexibility roof system fixed by the sliding supports, has demonstrated superior resistance to wind. In this paper, the highly detailed finite element model, including roof panels, sliding support, and purlin, is established to investigated the wind-resistance performance and failure pattern of the metal roof system. The results indicate that the properties of traditional roof panel are inadequate to match the high strength of the sliding support, which leads to the failure of the traditional roof panel, resulting in the roof panel being pulled apart at the 360° lock seam. To address the problem of excessive deformation of the traditional roof panel, the sandwich panel is configured to the 360° vertical seam-locked metal roof system. The maximum bearing capacity of the system with sandwich panel is increased from 1.39 kPa to 4.45 kPa, which is 3.24 times that of previous roof system. The maximum deformation of the roof panel is reduced by 93.4%, and the 360° lock seam remains relatively stable. It can be concluded that the sandwich panel could greatly improve the wind-resistance performance of the 360° vertical seam roof system.