By Rick Gardner
Wind Uplift on Low-Slope Roofs (Fifth Edition), by Stephen L. Patterson, RRC, PE, of Roof Technical Services Inc. and Dr. Madan Mehta, PhD, PE, with the University of Texas at Arlington, is now available. Funded by the RCI-IIBEC Foundation, the fifth edition highlights significant code changes and new information on tornadoes and hurricanes incorporated as a result of the new Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures (ASCE/SEI 7-22).
“The foundation is honored to have supported this work and looks forward to sharing this knowledge with the entire building enclosure industry,” said Mike Blanchette, immediate past chair of the RCI-IIBEC Foundation. “Steve Patterson and Dr. Mehta are the Lennon and McCartney of the building enclosure industry. Dr. Mehta brings the academics and hard sciences, and Steve Patterson brings the day-to-day knowledge that makes their work so accessible and practical for IIBEC members.”
According to Patterson and Dr. Mehta, “Looking at what is new in this update, the most significant wind-related revision in ASCE 7-22 is the addition of an entirely new chapter that deals with tornado winds. Until the publication of ASCE 7-22 Standard (i.e., up to ASCE 7-16 Standard), tornado winds were not considered for the design of buildings and other structures except for critical structures, such as the nuclear facilities or tornado shelters. Several years of research on tornadoes and the data collected therefrom have revealed that the number of fatalities and the property losses from tornadoes far exceed those from hurricanes and earthquakes combined.”
“ASCE 7-22 Standard takes the above revelation into account and requires that Risk Category III and IV facilities in tornado-prone region of the continental United States (the entire area lying east of the Rockies) be designed to resist tornado winds in addition to those from hurricanes and windstorms,” the authors continued. “Because this revision and its (almost certain) adoption by the 2024 International Building Code will impact the design of roof assemblies going forward, a new chapter on tornado wind pressures has been added in this fifth edition of the monograph. A brief discussion of other wind-related revisions in ASCE 7-22 Standard applicable to low-slope roofs are given and elaborated in the relevant chapters.”
Patterson is a licensed professional engineer, a registered roof consultant, and the founder and president of Roof Technical Services Inc. (Rooftech)—an engineering and roof consulting firm that has specialized in all phases of roofing and waterproofing since 1983. Patterson was a long-time member and former chairman of the Construction Research Center at the University of Texas at Arlington, which is where Patterson and Mehta met began their long-term collaboration.
Patterson has published more than a dozen technical papers on roofing, a book on roof design, and a series of seven monographs on wind design and drainage design with Mehta’s assistance.
Mehta has had a distinguished career in architecture and engineering. With academic credentials in both disciplines, he has taught architectural engineering courses in India, Australia, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, and the United States. He is the author of six full-length books, several monographs, chapters in books, and several technical papers. For the past 38 years, he has been working at the University of Texas at Arlington (first 37 years as tenured full professor of Architecture and now retired as adjunct senior professor of architecture). He has also participated in seminars organized by Patterson on wind design and drainage design issues related to roofs.
The publication is now available through the IIBEC Marketplace in both print and electronic versions. Funding for this monograph was made possible through the RCI-IIBEC Foundation’s general fund for research and education.
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