286
Performance of timber buildings
under high wind loads
D V Rosowsky
Oregon State University, USA
Summary
Timber structures often represent the largest
percentage of structures built in regions at
greatest risk of hurricanes and other high wind
events. In countries in which wood structures are
common, they often comprise the majority of
residential, light commercial, and other low-rise
structures. This paper addresses some of the
Key words: design; structural engineering; wind loads; wood-frame structures
Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2002; 4:286–290 (DOI: 10.1002/pse.115)
Introduction
Wood structures represent the largest percentage of
structures built in regions of the United States at greatest
risk of hurricanes and other high-wind events. Similar
trends in construction exist elsewhere in the world. In
countries in which wood structures are common, they
often comprise the majority of residential, light
commercial, and other low-rise structures. Wood
structures are also gaining in popularity as medium-rise
(3–5 storeys) multi-unit residential buildings. Some of
the greatest challenges in engineered wood construction
are those associated with natural hazards, such as
earthquakes, hurricanes (or cyclones), floods, tornadoes,
and so forth. This paper addresses some of the
important issues in the performance of wood buildings
subject to high wind loads. Implications for design are
also addressed and, where appropriate, recent and on-
going research is discussed. Developments in codes and
standards are discussed, as well as possible future
research directions. This paper is not intended to be an
all-encompassing treatment of wind effects and wind-
resistant design of wood structures. Rather, it is
intended to summarize some of the important
performance issues, to provide some indication of the
state of knowledge on these issues and their treatment
in design, and to guide the interested reader to
additional sources of information.
Background
The majority of coastal construction in the USA is
wood-frame construction, much of which may be
Published online 3 July 2002
Copyright & 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
important issues in the performance of wood
buildings subject to high wind loads. Implications
for design are addressed and recent and on-going
research is discussed. Developments in the codes
and standards areas and future research
directions also are discussed.
subject to severe wind loads during the anticipated
service life. Investigations of damage and associated
monetary losses from recent hurricanes have revealed
the extraordinary susceptibility of much of our coastal
residential building stock to large losses. Such losses
are frequently realized, even when the structural
damage is not particularly severe, as a consequence
of damage to the contents of the homes (from
wind-driven rain). Thus, both issues of structural
capacity and integrity of the building envelope must
be addressed in the development of rational
loss-reduction methods. In response to the obvious
need to mitigate structural and non-structural
damage through pre-engineered solutions (deemed-
to-comply prescriptive standards), considerable
research has been conducted in the last decade to
evaluate the performance of various elements and
sub-systems in both the structural system and the
building envelope.
Hurricanes (cyclones) are combined wind-and-
water events, and often are accompanied by severe
flooding. While it is sometimes difficult to distinguish
between high-wind-and flood-induced damage in a
post-hurricane investigation, it is believed that wind
and wind-driven rain are responsible for the majority
of damage and consequent insurance losses in
hurricanes[1]. The three most important design/
construction issues for wood structures in high-wind
environments are: (1) the building envelope; (2) the
sheathing (roof and wall) attachment; and (3) the
structural system to transfer the applied uplift and
lateral loads into the foundation.
The building envelope is the first line of defence
against wind and water intrusion. Its integrity
Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2002; 4:286–290

determines the difference between an ‘enclosed’
building and one that is ‘partially enclosed,’ the latter
having much higher wind loads (due to internal
pressurization). Any breach in the building envelope
permits water to penetrate the structure, causing
damage to the structural members and connections,
contents and interior finishes. To ensure the building
envelope integrity, windows and doors must be
designed for, or otherwise protected against, wind
pressures and possible debris impact. In designing the
structure, it remains unclear whether cladding should
be treated as part of the structural system, and this
may vary by cladding type. Traditionally, structural
engineers have not designed the building envelope
because it was considered to be architectural in
nature. However, structural engineers are becoming
more active in building envelope design since a direct
correlation has been shown to exist between its
performance and the damage (losses) sustained by
wood-frame buildings.
The attachment of the roof and wall sheathing, as part
of the building envelope, is critical in keeping the
structure enclosed and preventing water infiltration,
and in most instances providing critical links in the
structural load path. The most common sequence of
failure modes observed in the aftermath of a
hurricane is the removal of the roof covering,
followed by the removal of one or more pieces of roof
sheathing. Studies in recent years highlight the
increase in wind uplift pressures toward the edges of
roofs[e.g. 2,3].
The structural system is important for transferring
both uplift forces acting on the roof and lateral forces
acting on the walls down to the foundation. In most
wood-frame construction the load path is quite
complicated, owing to the conventional framing
process, and to the desire of owners to have irregular
floor plans. In addition, the primary purpose of a
structural system is to resist gravity loads, such as the
dead load and live load acting on the building. Since
these loads always act (although not always at their
full value), the ability to withstand these loads is
known early in the life of the structure. The ability to
withstand high wind loads, however, may not be
known for some time, if ever. Specific performance
issues are discussed in the following sections.
Performance issues
WIND DAMAGE
Damage patterns in wood-frame wood structures
subject to high winds are generally similar, whether
the wind event is tropical (e.g. hurricane or cyclone)
or extratropical (e.g. thunderstorm). The most
common forms of damage are removal of roof
coverings, broken windows and doors, roof sheathing
removal, and (in some cases) rigid body rotation of
Copyright & 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
TIMBER BUILDINGS IN HIGH WINDS 287
large sections of roof. Tornadoes are highly
localized, intense wind events, and induce different
damage patterns than larger, more spatially
distributed storms. In addition to the types of
damage seen in larger storms, severe damage in
tornadoes can result from wind-borne debris (and
missile impact) and falling trees. Recent hurricanes
in the USA, and similar high-wind events elsewhere
in the world, have provided vivid reminders of
the susceptibility of wood structures to high wind
loads. The issue is expected to be exacerbated in
future years, not so much by any predicted (or
debated) changes in the meteorological climate, but
by trends toward increased construction along
coastlines at the greatest risk of hurricanes or other
high-wind events.
A number of recent papers have focused on
wind damage to low-rise (primarily wood-frame)
structures[e.g. 1,4–6]. Post-event damage surveys
have been conducted (in the USA) by the
National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)
and others[e.g. 7,8]. Finally, economic loss models have
been developed and applied to the prediction of
short- and long-term losses due to extreme wind
events[9–11].
BUILDING ENVELOPE ISSUES
The building envelope is the first line of defence
against costly water damage. Maintaining an enclosed
structure is also critical. The tremendous increase in
internal pressures resulting from a breach in the
building envelope, when combined with the external
pressures, can very quickly cause severe structural
damage. This can include removal of roof sheathing,
popping out of windows and doors, and even
pushing out of exterior (load-bearing) walls, resulting
in structural collapse. Post-event damage surveys[e.g.
1,7] document all of these types of failures, and clearly
trace them back to sudden internal pressurization due
to a building envelope breach. (The initial breach may
be due to external pressures, or suctions in the case of
roof covering/sheathing removal, or due to debris or
missile impact; see also[12]).
STRUCTURAL AND NON-STRUCTURAL
COMPONENTS
In wood-frame structures, and light-frame structures
in particular, the distinction between structural and
non-structural components often is not clear
(compared, for example, with steel or concrete
structures). The structural sheathing, and even the
interior and exterior finish materials, contribute to the
stiffness (behaviour) and strength (capacity) of
assemblies. Overall structural stiffness and damping
can further be influenced by interior walls and
partitions. Even non-structural items, such as
staircases and chimneys, can significantly stiffen a
wood-frame structure. While it may not be practical
Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2002; 4:286–290
288
for the structural engineer to take all of these into
account explicitly when designing a wood structure,
some understanding of their relative contributions
(effects) can be useful, particularly-when designing
for lateral loads.
Architectural features (often desirable to the client)
such as complex roof shapes, dormer windows,
porches and balconies, and large windows, often pose
some of the greatest design challenges, as these
features are known to create large (and uncertain)
local pressures and to present challenges to designing
an adequate load path. While wind-tunnel studies
have most often focused on larger rectangular
structures, increased attention is being paid
now to wind effects on medium and low-rise
structures[e.g. 2,3,13,14].
LOAD PATH
Perhaps the most critical design issue for wood
structures in high-wind regions is to ensure the
adequacy of the vertical load path. This is often given
less attention than the horizontal load path (i.e.,
designing for wind as a lateral load). However,
damage patterns following high-wind events have
clearly identified failure of roof sheathing materials
and separation of roof framing from walls as the
dominant failure modes for wood-frame structures.
Suction loads on roofs can be quite significant, and
when coupled with even a modest internal
pressurization due to a breach in the building
envelope, can cause rapid progressive failure of
roof systems.
Designing the vertical load path
(roof-to-foundation) requires an understanding
of the structural load path (and load sharing).
Wood structures, and light-frame structures in
particular, are highly indeterminate, and are generally
quite flexible. Often the load path is not known
explicitly, and in many cases non-structural (e.g. wall
finishes) or ‘semi-structural’ (e.g. sheathing)
elements may be functioning with the primary
framing as part of the effective load path. Connectors
and other hardware such as straps (or clips, or ties)
and anchors are essential elements, and product
manufacturers provide design values for a range
of structural applications, material types, load
directions, and so forth. These design values are
often stiffness-based (or deformation-based) rather
than capacity-based, which can present challenges
when attempting to design the complete load path
efficiently, with known safety margins. Considerable
work has been done to identify (and design)
effective vertical load paths in wood structures[15–19].
These studies have shown that even modest
reinforcements (larger connectors or additional
fasteners) can greatly increase (in some cases, more
than double) the system uplift capacity. Often, this can
be accomplished at relatively low cost.
Copyright & 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
TIMBER CONSTRUCTION
SITE ISSUES AND TOPOGRAPHIC EFFECTS
As low-rise structures, wood-frame buildings
generally experience the effects high winds quite
differently compared with larger (e.g. high-rise)
buildings. The atmospheric boundary layer (or wind
profile) parameters, such as mean wind speed,
turbulence intensity, and gust-length scales are
determined in large part by the roughness of the
earth’s surface. Roughness elements vary from grass
to forests, or from open ocean to built-up suburban
areas. For the rougher conditions, low-rise buildings
are about the same size as the roughness element itself
(e.g. a house in a forest). In such situations, the
roughness elements serve both to influence the wind
field and to provide shelter to the structure. Thus,
low-rise structures are more significantly influenced
by the presence of surrounding objects than are larger
structures[20]. More information on topographic
effects, including roughness elements, wind speed-up
over escarpments, and sheltering effects may be
found in[13,21–23].
CONSTRUCTION QUALITY ISSUES
The performance of wood structures subject to
high wind loads is affected significantly by
construction quality. Both the quality of construction
and the effectiveness (or existence) of building
inspection during construction vary greatly from
region to region. In many cases, the engineer is not
involved in the construction and often can supervise
only limited parts of the process. Field changes
during framing (construction) are not uncommon,
and often are not made by engineers. Among the most
critical construction quality (or tolerance) issues
affecting the performance of wood-frame buildings
subject to high winds are: (1) insufficient, missing, or
misplaced fasteners for sheathing attachment; (2)
inadequate, missing, or incorrectly installed
connection hardware (e.g. straps, ties, anchors); (3)
improper installation of windows or doors; and (4)
improper detailing or installation of the building
envelope (for moisture).
Codes and standards
Codes, standards, and other design guideline
documents for wood structures take many
forms, ranging from engineering design standards,
through prescriptive (deemed-to-comply) documents,
to guidelines of practice. The extent of regulation
is furthermore highly variable from country to
country. It is becoming more common (and indeed,
it is required in some regions) to require that
low-rise structures, which often received little
if any engineering attention in the past, be fully or
partially engineered. This is particularly true in
Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2002; 4:286–290

high-hazard regions in the USA, for example.
‘Partially engineered’ refers to the engineering
design of selected components or assemblies in
the structure, or to the use of pre-engineered design
aids (e.g. tables, charts). This has particular utility
in the case of highly standardized structural
materials and/or systems (such as in light-frame
construction), or in the case where the structures
are designed by non-engineers or with only
limited engineering analysis. Larger wood structures
are generally fully engineered. In the USA, both
allowable stress[24] and LRFD or limit states design[25]
standards are available for engineered wood
construction. Engineered wood construction is
similarly evolved in many other countries throughout
the world.
Most provisions for wind design are force-based.
Lateral forces are determined for walls and
diaphragms, and vertical uplift forces are determined
for roofs and other elements in the vertical load path.
Codes often provide two sets of pressure coefficients
for use when determining wind loads, one for
primary framing (called ‘main wind-force-resisting
system’ in the USA) and the other for components and
cladding (the latter receiving wind load directly,
transferring it to components). There remains some
confusion about how these different coefficients are
applied in the case of light-frame structures, in part
due to the vague distinctions between structural and
non-structural components, and in part due to lack of
knowledge about actual failure modes[26]. There is a
current movement to develop performance-based
(also called objective-based, in some countries) design
provisions for structures in high-hazard regions. In
the case of seismic design, these have been largely
displacement-based (rather than force-based), since
performance requirements are typically linked to
lateral displacement (drift) quantities. Thus, it would
seem reasonable to expect that forthcoming
performance-based requirements for wind design
might also be displacement-based. While
performance-based design is beyond the scope of this
paper, a number of recent studies have appeared in
the literature with specific application to wood-frame
structures[e.g. 27,28]. There have also been some
interesting papers discussing issues of designing for
life safety in comparison with cost containment,
establishing appropriate performance measures,
translating performance objectives into structural
requirements, and risk–cost–benefit analysis of wood
structures in high-wind regions in recent years[11,28].
There are many legitimate questions remaining to be
answered about choice of design return period
(influencing, for example, design loads) for cladding
systems compared with primary framing systems and
how (or whether) to address construction quality
issues. More papers may be expected as such topics
are explored further and practical design applications
are developed.
Copyright & 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
TIMBER BUILDINGS IN HIGH WINDS 289
Concluding remarks
Wood structures, when properly designed and
constructed, have generally performed well under
natural hazard loadings. Performance problems
observed in wood structures subject to high wind
loads are rarely a result of the use of wood as a
structural material, or the choice of structural system.
Rather, the most prevalent performance problems
result from inadequate engineering attention to the
vertical load path, including the interaction and
relative contributions of structural and non-structural
elements and assemblies, and to ensuring the building
envelope integrity. The three basic design principles,
therefore, are: (1) understanding the loading on the
structure, including effects of architectural features,
siting, and shielding; (2) tying the building system
together, ensuring adequate load paths; and (3)
maintaining an enclosed building. From the structural
and wind engineering perspectives, research should
continue to focus on these three issues[20,29,30]. There
have also been, and will continue to be, changes in
societal expectations for performance[26] as well as
changes in structural forms (architectural styles,
materials, framing and connection systems) and cost
of damage, both direct and indirect. These factors also
influence the perceived performance of wood
structures under high wind loads. Additional
research will be needed to better describe
performance objectives and to develop robust design
procedures which ensure that these targets
(determined on appropriate safety, economic, and risk
bases) are met.
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to Jay Crandell of the
National Association of Home Builders Research
Center for reviewing an earlier draft of this paper.
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David V Rosowsky, PhD
Richardson Chair in Wood Engineering
and Professor of Civil Engineering,
Department of Wood Science and Engineering,
Oregon State University,
Corvallis, OR 97331-5751, USA.
E-mail: David.Rosowsky@orst.edu
Copyright & 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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