Full-scale and Modeled Hurricane Wind Loads on Residential Structures

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NSF Grant Number: 0928563

Project Title: Full-scale and Modeled Hurricane Wind Loads on Residential Structures

Abstract:

The proposed work investigates the differences between actual as-measured and scale modeled overland hurricane wind field turbulence and extreme wind loads on residential structures. The work is part of an NSF-sponsored research project awarded to the PIs in 2009 (click for project abstract)
This will be accomplished by a study that combines the current state-of-knowledge in wind tunnel modeling of approach turbulence and wind loading with an existing full-scale dataset. This unique existing dataset includes both wind field measurements (velocity) collected by portable towers deployed in coastal and inland/suburban settings, and pressure data measured on the roofs of 16 near-coast real, occupied residential structures, ten of which experienced hurricane winds. As of 2008 this ten year data collection project has produced a dataset of sufficient breadth to fill critical gaps in the state-of-knowledge regarding: influence of heterogeneous terrain on the turbulent wind field, the resultant loading on full-scale low-rise residential structures, and the ability of wind tunnel methods to model turbulence and loads on low-rise structures.
 
 
 

 

The study will include a thorough treatment of the uncertainties in full- and scale-model data collection and analysis. Wind tunnel results will be compared with real hurricane wind load data measured on the models’ full scale counterpart. The upstream turbulence employed by the wind tunnel facilities will be compared with turbulence data directly measured during land falling hurricanes. Thus the relative influence of scaling effects, approach turbulence, and variability between facilities on the precision and accuracy of extreme wind load estimates will be quantified. The research is critical for evaluating the reliability of current wind design load practice.

 

Participants:
Principal Investigators:
Dr. Kurtis R. Gurley, PhD
Dr. Forrest J. Masters, PhD
Dr. David O. Prevatt, PhD, PEGraduate Students:
Juan Antonio Balderrama Garcia Mendez		 wtunnel

Ongoing Progess:

Aerodynamic Roughness Analysis from Tropical Cyclone Data