TY - JOUR
T1 - Improved near-surface wind speed characterization using damage patterns
AU - Rhee, Daniel M.
AU - Lombardo, Franklin T.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the VORTEX-SE program by NOAA (Award No: NA150AR4590228 , NA16OAR4590219 ) to conduct multiple post-damage surveys and support the first author's doctorate program. Authors would also like to thank Maryam Refan for providing the GBVTD data and the members of Wind Engineering Research Laboratory (WERL) and other students at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who assisted in the damage surveys.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/9
Y1 - 2018/9
N2 - Tornadoes have caused significant damage and casualties in the past decades. These losses have spurred efforts toward tornado-based design, which requires an accurate estimate of the near-surface tornadic wind speeds. Due to the difficulty of obtaining in-situ measurements and various issues regarding Enhance Fujita (EF) scale, a promising method of estimating near-surface wind speed based on damage inflicted is developed. The method utilizes fall directions of trees and other objects with distinct fall patterns to describe the characteristics of the tornado and other wind storms. The observed fall patterns are used to estimate Rankine vortex parameters and reproduce near-surface wind field. The wind field then can be compared to structural damage as an independent method. The near-surface wind speeds of different tornado cases were estimated using this method, one of which (Sidney, IL) exhibited ‘crop-fall’ patterns and yet another (Naplate, IL) caused damage to trees and other infrastructures such as street signs. Based on the damage to structures and estimated wind speeds from tree-fall analysis, empirical fragility curves are also developed, which allows to interpret the vulnerability to tornadoes. The entire process of wind speed, wind load, structural resistance and ultimately how to mitigate damage then can be better understood.
AB - Tornadoes have caused significant damage and casualties in the past decades. These losses have spurred efforts toward tornado-based design, which requires an accurate estimate of the near-surface tornadic wind speeds. Due to the difficulty of obtaining in-situ measurements and various issues regarding Enhance Fujita (EF) scale, a promising method of estimating near-surface wind speed based on damage inflicted is developed. The method utilizes fall directions of trees and other objects with distinct fall patterns to describe the characteristics of the tornado and other wind storms. The observed fall patterns are used to estimate Rankine vortex parameters and reproduce near-surface wind field. The wind field then can be compared to structural damage as an independent method. The near-surface wind speeds of different tornado cases were estimated using this method, one of which (Sidney, IL) exhibited ‘crop-fall’ patterns and yet another (Naplate, IL) caused damage to trees and other infrastructures such as street signs. Based on the damage to structures and estimated wind speeds from tree-fall analysis, empirical fragility curves are also developed, which allows to interpret the vulnerability to tornadoes. The entire process of wind speed, wind load, structural resistance and ultimately how to mitigate damage then can be better understood.
KW - Crops
KW - Fragility
KW - Tornado
KW - Tree-fall
KW - Wind speeds
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jweia.2018.07.017
DO - 10.1016/j.jweia.2018.07.017
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85053033108
VL - 180
SP - 288
EP - 297
JO - Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics
JF - Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics
SN - 0167-6105
ER -