AS 4055—2012

Australian Standard®

Wind loads for housing

AS

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This Australian Standard® was prepared by Committee BD-099, Wind Loads for Housing. It

was approved on behalf of the Council of Standards Australia on 23 November 2012.

This Standard was published on 24 December 2012.

The following are represented on Committee BD-099:

• Australian Building Codes Board

• Australian Window Association

• Concrete Masonry Association of Australia

• Cyclone Testing Station

• Engineers Australia

• Forest and Wood Products Australia

• Housing Industry Association

• Master Builders Association

• Roofing Tile Association of Australia

• Think Brick Australia

This Standard was issued in draft form for comment as DR AS 4055.

Standards Australia wishes to acknowledge the participation of the expert individuals that

contributed to the development of this Standard through their representation on the

Committee and through the public comment period.

Keeping Standards up-to-date Australian Standards® are living documents that reflect progress in science, technology and

systems. To maintain their currency, all Standards are periodically reviewed, and new editions

are published. Between editions, amendments may be issued.

Standards may also be withdrawn. It is important that readers assure themselves they are

using a current Standard, which should include any amendments that may have been

published since the Standard was published.

Detailed information about Australian Standards, drafts, amendments and new projects can

be found by visiting www.standards.org.au

Standards Australia welcomes suggestions for improvements, and encourages readers to

notify us immediately of any apparent inaccuracies or ambiguities. Contact us via email at

mail@standards.org.au, or write to Standards Australia, GPO Box 476, Sydney, NSW 2001.

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AS 4055—2012

Australian Standard®

Wind loads for housing

Originated as AS 4055—1992. Previous edition 2006.

Third edition 2012.

COPYRIGHT

© Standards Australia Limited

All rights are reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or copied in any form or by

any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without the written

permission of the publisher, unless otherwise permitted under the Copyright Act 1968.

Published by SAI Global Limited under licence from Standards Australia Limited, GPO Box

476, Sydney, NSW 2001, Australia

ISBN 978 1 74342 323 3

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AS 4055—2012 2

PREFACE

This Standard was prepared by the Standards Australia Committee BD-099, Wind loads for

housing to supersede AS 4055—2006.

This Standard will be referenced in the National Construction Code (NCC) 2013 edition,

thereby superseding in part the previous edition, AS 4055—2006, which will be withdrawn

12 months from the date of publication of this edition.

The objective of this Standard is to provide designers, builders and manufacturers of

building products that are affected by wind loading with a range of wind speed classes that

can be used to design and specify such products for use in housing that are within the

limitations in this Standard.

This revision aims to improve modelling of topographic effects and also to harmonize with

recent changes to AS/NZS 1170.2:2011, including Amendments No.1 and No.2. This

edition differs from the previous edition as follows:

(a) The Scope of the Standard has been revised to include the limitation to Class 1 and

Class 10 buildings as defined by the NCC. This has always been the intention of this

Standard as reflected in the definition of ‘house’, but the limitation is more obvious

when presented in the Scope.

(b) Table 2.1 presenting wind speeds for each wind classification has been split into a

Non-Cyclonic regions table and a Cyclonic regions table for clarification. The wind

speeds for each wind classification remain unchanged.

(c) Table 2.2 presenting the Wind Classification for sites has been changed to include a

new Topographic Class T0 and to harmonize with changes adopted by

AS/NZS 1170.2, terrain category multipliers.

(d) Definitions for terrain categories have been revised to be compatible with those in

AS/NZS 1170.2:2011 (as amended). The revised definitions are intended to clarify

the differences between the categories. International research has shown that the wind

speeds over water are appropriate for Terrain Category 1 multipliers, so

AS/NZS 1170.2 has included water bodies in Terrain Category 1 for all wind regions.

In the case of wind blowing over large bodies of water, including seas and oceans,

shoaling waves can introduce a near-shore roughness that means this water can be

considered as Terrain Category 1.5. This change has followed through to this

Standard. Terrain Category 4 is not applicable to this Standard as in Terrain

Category 4, a house is embedded within the Terrain Category 4 roughness and its

wind force evaluation may require special techniques.

(e) The calculation of topographic class had previously used the average of the maximum

and minimum slope on a topographic feature to determine an average slope. While the

average slope characterized a conical hill well, it significantly underestimated the

slope of a ridge or escarpment. The maximum slope is now used to characterize the

topographic feature. This will better represent the slope of a ridge or escarpment

without significantly changing the characterization of a conical hill. This change was

recommended as a result of observation of significantly higher levels of wind damage

on ridges and escarpments in cyclonic and non-cyclonic wind storms.

(f) In AS/NZS 1170.2:2011, the topographic multiplier for flat land applies to hill slopes

of less than 1:20 and this revision introduces a new Topographic Class T0 to

represent slopes from 0 to 1:20. This Class has a topographic multiplier of 1.0. The

topographic multiplier for T1 has been changed to 1.1 and includes wind for slopes

from 1:20 to 1:10. Hill slopes have also been expressed in degrees.

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3 AS 4055—2012

(g) Shielding classifications have been harmonized with those in AS/NZS 1170.2 as

appropriate for houses. For Regions A and B, large trees and heavily wooded areas

can offer shielding and have been explicitly included, whereas in Regions C and D,

the long duration of the wind event means that trees will be denuded before the

arrival of the peak gust.

(h) Shielding classifications are linked to the topographic classes. AS/NZS 1170.2:2011

also links shielding with topography by allowing shielding only on slopes of less than

1:5. This has also been incorporated into this Standard by allowing full shielding only

for those topographic classes with slopes of less than 1:5. This change in both

Standards are based on wind-field models of hills and damage surveys following

cyclonic and non-cyclonic wind events.

(j) Houses in the first row adjacent to wide, open areas are classed as ‘Not Shielded’, the

second row from wide open areas is classed as ‘Partial Shielding’ and subsequent

rows as ‘Full Shielding’ where there are sufficient houses.

(k) Pressure zones on roofs and walls have been defined, named and illustrated on

diagrams. Edge and corner zones are subject to higher pressures due to the local

pressure factors defined in AS/NZS 1170.2. An additional zone on the windward

corners of low slope roofs allows for the RC1 zone introduced to

AS/NZS 1170.2:2011 based on recent international research.

(l) The combination factor (Kc) from AS/NZS 1170.2:2011 has been applied to all

pressures for walls and roofs. This has reduced some of the design pressures in the

Standard.

(m) A more detailed commentary has been added (Appendix A) to clarify the relationship

of this Standard to AS/NZS 1170.2 and to give background to some of the clauses.

(n) The example of topographic classes (Appendix B) has been changed to reflect the

changes to definition of topographic classes.

(o) The example of terrain categories and shielding (Appendix C) has been changed to

reflect the changes to definition of terrain categories and Shielding.

(p) In checking Tables 5.2 to 5.13, some minor discrepancies were found between values

in the previous edition and those calculated from the formulae in Appendix A. These

discrepancies were corrected and while there may be small differences in racking

forces between this document and AS 1684, this will not affect the use of AS 1684.

(q) References to the differential pressures on photovoltaic solar panels in

AS/NZS 1170.2 were included.

The term ‘informative’ has been used in this Standard to define the application of the

Appendix to which it applies. An ‘informative’ appendix is only for information and

guidance.

Notes to the text contain information and guidance. They are not an integral part of the

Standard.

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AS 4055—2012 4

CONTENTS

Page

SECTION 1 SCOPE AND GENERAL

1.1 SCOPE ......................................................................................................................... 5

1.2 LIMITATIONS ............................................................................................................ 5

1.3 NORMATIVE REFERENCES .................................................................................... 5

1.4 DEFINITIONS ............................................................................................................. 6

1.5 NOTATION ................................................................................................................. 7

SECTION 2 WIND LOADS

2.1 CLASSIFICATION ..................................................................................................... 9

2.2 RELATIONSHIP TO WIND REGION AND SITE CONDITIONS ............................ 9

2.3 SELECTION OF TERRAIN CATEGORY ................................................................ 12

2.4 SELECTION OF TOPOGRAPHIC CLASS .............................................................. 13

2.5 SELECTION OF SHIELDING CLASS ..................................................................... 14

SECTION 3 CALCULATION OF PRESSURES AND FORCES

3.1 PRESSURE ZONES .................................................................................................. 16

3.2 PRESSURE COEFFICIENTS .................................................................................... 17

3.3 CALCULATION OF PRESSURES ........................................................................... 20

3.4 CALCULATION OF FORCES .................................................................................. 21

3.5 PRESSURES FOR TYPICAL APPLICATIONS ....................................................... 21

SECTION 4 UPLIFT FORCES .............................................................................................. 24

SECTION 5 RACKING FORCES

5.1 RACKING FORCES ................................................................................................. 25

5.2 AREA OF ELEVATION ........................................................................................... 25

APPENDICES

A COMMENTARY ....................................................................................................... 42

B WORKED EXAMPLE FOR THE DETERMINATION OF TOPOGRAPHIC

CLASS ....................................................................................................................... 53

C WORKED EXAMPLES FOR THE SELECTION OF TERRAIN CATEGORY

AND SHIELDING CLASS ........................................................................................ 57

D WORKED EXAMPLE FOR RACKING FORCES .................................................... 61

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5 AS 4055—2012

www.standards.org.au © Standards Australia

STANDARDS AUSTRALIA

Australian Standard

Wind loads for housing

S E C T I O N 1 S C O P E A N D G E N E R A L

1.1 SCOPE

This Standard specifies site wind speed classes for determining design wind speeds and

wind loads for NCC buildings Classes 1 and 10 within the geometric limits given in

Clause 1.2. The classes are for use in the design of housing and for design, manufacturing

and specifying of building products and systems used for housing.

Wind loads for houses not complying with the geometric limits given in Clause 1.2 are

outside the scope of this Standard.

NOTES:

1 Commentary on the clauses of this Standard is given in Appendix A.

2 A worked example for the determination of topography is given in Appendix B.

3 Worked examples for the determination of terrain category and shielding class are given in

Appendix C.

4 A worked example for racking forces is given in Appendix D.

5 Where houses do not comply with the geometric and other limitations of this Standard, use

AS/NZS 1170.2.

1.2 LIMITATIONS

For the purpose of this Standard, the following conditions (geometric limits) shall apply

(see Figure 1.1):

(a) The distance from ground level to the underside of eaves shall not exceed 6.0 m. The

distance from ground level to the highest point of the roof, not including chimneys,

shall not exceed 8.5 m.

(b) The width (W) including roofed verandas, excluding eaves, shall not exceed 16.0 m,

and the length (L) shall not exceed five times the width.

(c) The roof pitch shall not exceed 35°.

The tables in Section 5 are based on floor to ceiling height of 2.4 m and a floor depth of

0.3 m (floor level down to ceiling below).

If wind loads on houses are determined using this Standard, design parameters shall be

derived from this Standard only. Where wind loads on buildings are determined using

AS/NZS 1170.2, design parameters in that Standard only must be used.

NOTE: Clause 3.2.3 in this Standard refers to pressures on solar panels given in AS/NZS 1170.2.

These parameters are referenced in this Standard.

1.3 NORMATIVE REFERENCES

The following are the normative documents referenced in this Standard:

AS/NZS

1170 Structural design actions

1170.2 Part 2: Wind actions

ABCB

NCC National Construction Code

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