Effect on Tiles by Wind Flow over Roof of Japanese Residence

A series of wind tunnel tests was conducted on the vibration and scattering behavior of full-sized model of roof tiles, which were used widely for roofings of Japanese wooden dwellings. This study has investigated the nature and source of the vibrating and scattering behavior of roof tiles with the aim of providing a better insight to the mechanism. The roof tiles were set up on the pitched roof in the downstream of the flow from the wind tunnel. Based on the consideration on the results of the measurements, there is a basic mechanism which can lead to flow-induced vibrations of the roof tiles. This mechanism is similar to that of the so-called fluttering instability, which appears as the self-excited oscillation in the natural mode of the structure at the certain critical flow speed. The values of the frequencies for the oscillating relate to the values of natural frequencies of the vibration.