Design wind loads on buildings in Canada: Emphasis on computational wind engineering progress

The paper provides the trajectory of research and practical applications established in structural wind engineering during the last decades in Canada, for low- mid- rise buildings. Various perspectives are discussed such as code provisions, wind tunnel experiments, full-scale measurements, while emphasis is given to Computational Wind Engineering (CWE). Latest versions of the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC) are considered, and some important new additions are discussed. Wind tunnel experimental results are presented from various studies to indicate the level of agreement among various facilities. The complexity of the interaction between wind flow and structures in the atmospheric boundary layer is significant, considering the differences found among similar experimental campaigns. Full-scale measurements are also compared with wind tunnel results and code provisions. Thresholds of accuracy based on various building configurations for area averaged and local loads are drawn that are useful for validation of computational approaches. CWE has rapidly evolved during the last decades and some representative studies from the literature and their methodologies are discussed. National and international codes/standards committees have initiated efforts to establish guidelines for practical use of CWE for estimation of wind-induced loads, on their upcoming versions. The endeavors from Eurocode and the Architectural Institute of Japan are analyzed. A novel state-of-the-art application is presented that has recently been developed by the authors, with good prospects to combine accuracy and efficiency for CWE. Results are within the threshold of accuracy established by comparisons between various wind tunnels, full scale data and code provisions.