Wind resistance performance of a continuous welding stainless steel roof under static ultimate wind loading with testing and simulation methods

Ultrapure ferritic stainless steel provides a new generation of long-span metal roof systems with continuous welding technology, which exhibits many unknown behaviors during wind excitation. This study focuses on the wind-resistant capacity of a new continuous welding stainless steel roof (CWSSR) system. Full-scale testing on the welding joints and the CWSSR system is performed under uniaxial tension and static ultimate wind uplift loadings, respectively. A finite element model is developed with mesh refinement optimization and is further validated with the testing results, which provides a reliable way of investigating the parameter effect on the wind-induced structural responses, namely, the width and thickness of the roof sheeting and welding height. Research results show that the CWSSR system has predominant wind-resistant performance and can bear an ultimate wind uplift loading of 10.4 kPa without observable failures. The welding joints achieve equivalent mechanical behaviors as those of base material is produced with the current of 65 A. Independent structural responses can be found for the roof sheeting of the CWSSR system, and the maximum displacement appears at the middle of the roof sheeting, while the maximum stress appears at the connection supports between the roof sheeting with a significant stress concentration effect. The responses of the CWSSR system are greatly influenced by the width and thickness of the roof sheeting but are less influenced by the welding height.