Performance of steel roof decks subjected to repeated wind loading

On September 18 of 1989, hurricane Hugo struck the island of Puerto Rico, causing widespread property damage estimated at over one billion dollars. A substantial portion of that sum was lost to FOMENTO INDUSTRIAL, the local government agency in charge of promoting manufacturing development. Specially troublesome to the agency was the performance of steel roof decks typical to those buildings.; A full scale experimental study was proposed and co-sponsored by FOMENTO, American Agencies and M&S. The testing apparatus included a two span steel frame built to specification for typical metal deck spans of 7 feet 6 inches. Wind load was modeled using a hydraulic load actuator and a MTS machine with a 50 Kips controller and a digital function generator. Air bags were used to distribute the loads over the decks. The variables tested in the investigation were the fastener's spacing (6 and 12 inches), wind pressures, and load application frequencies. A total of 26 tests was done to type B gage 22 steel decks. Four types of failures were obtained during the testing. Deficiency of the steel deck performance was detected during the test due to the type and location of the failures. Design charts and some formulas were designed to take in consideration the dynamic behavior of steel deck sheets under low and high cycle fatigue.; Results of the experiment showed that the dynamic performance of the steel deck sheets is lower for loads as low as 60% of the static load resistance. Also load cycles accumulation is extremely important in the endurance of the steel decks.