HURRICANE

BCN 4583/5584-Natural Hazards

Conducted by
Dr. Abdol Chini, P.E.
 Instructor Information
• Associate Professor
• Rinker, Sr. School of Building Construction
• Office: ARC 152
• Telephone: 392-7510 (w), 337-1760 (h)
• e-mail: chini@ufl.edu
• Office Hours: MWF 2 to 5 pm
 Course Objectives
• Understanding the phenomena associated
with the actions of wind upon structures.
• Design of structures for extreme winds
using ASCE 7-98 standard.
• Disaster mitigation where the protection of
people and the preservation of building
function are principal objectives.
 Wind Engineering
• Wind Nature and its Interac. with Structures
• Wind Damage Experience
• ASCE 7-98 Provisions
• Designing for Hurricanes
• Designing for Tornadoes
• Case Study-Hurricane Andrew
• The South Florida Building Code
 The Wind Environment

Wind, or motion of air with respect to the

surface of the earth, is due to differences in
the amount of solar heat received by the
atmosphere over various areas of the earth’s
surface.
 Equatorial and Polar Regions
• The axis of rotation of the earth is inclined
at approximately 66.5 degree to the plane of
its orbit around the sun. Therefore, the
intensity of terrestrial radiation and the
temperature of the atmosphere will be
higher in equatorial than in the polar
regions.
Simplified model of atmospheric circulation.
 Additional forces generated by
the motion of air
• Coriolis forces due to the earth’s rotation
• Centrifugal forces due to the curvature of
the path of motion
• Retardation forces due to the effect of
friction at the earth’s surface
 Wind forces in structural design
• Tropical cyclones
• Thunderstorms
• Tornadoes
 Tropical Cyclones
• Originate over tropical waters (5 to 20
degrees latitudes).
• Derive their energy from latent heat stored
in vaporized ocean water and released as
condensation of the water occurs at high
altitudes.
 Classification of Cyclones
Max sustained wind Classification
38 mph or less Tropical depression
39-73 mph Tropical storm
74 mph or greater Hurricane
 Saffir/Simpson Hurricane Scale
• 74-95 mph Category I (Juan, LA, 1985)
• 96-110 mph Category II (Bob, NC, 1991)
• 111-130 mph Category III(Betsy, FL,1965)
• 131-155 mph Category IV(Andrew, FL,92)
• >155 mph Category V(Camille, AL, 69)
 Thunderstorms
• Raindrops exert viscous drag forces on the
air through which they fall and create a
strong downdraft.
• Strong winds occur when the downdraft
spreads over the ground.
 Tornadoes
• A vortex of air (of the order of 1000 ft in
diameter) which develops within a severe
thunderstorm.
• Powerful explosive forces may be caused
by the difference between the pressure
within the structure and the lower pressure
prevailing within the tornado funnel.
Wind nature and its Interaction
with Structures
 Characteristics of Wind
• Wind gust, turbulence
• mean and peak values of wind
• wind variation with height
• wind speed-up over hills
• wind climate; probability of wind
SNAPSHOT OF WIND
 Data Assembled by Sherlock
• Wind is chaotic
• Wind speed increases with height
• Gust size along wind, across wind, and
vertical
• we have to make some sense out of this
chaos
MEAN WIND SPEED AVERAGING TIME
 Mean Wind Speed Averaging Time

• One hour mean is approximately 60 knots

(1 knot = 1.15 miles)
• 10 minute mean is about 65 knots
• 2 minute mean is about 75 knots
• One minute sustained value is 80 knots
• Peak (3 second) value is 85 knots
• It is important to know averaging time
THUNDERSTORM RECORD
 Thunderstorm Record
• Mean wind speed for a long time average is
difficult to assess
• One minute mean or 3-second peak can be
obtained
 Ratio of Averaging Time to Mean Hourly

• Hurricane wind gust duration curve established by

Krayer and Marshall (1992)
• V t = wind speed of averaging time t seconds
• V 3600 = mean hourly wind speed
• If hurricane sustained wind speed is 120 mph,
what is the 3-second wind speed? (sustained wind
is one minute average)
• V3 = (120)[(V3/V3600)/(V60/V3600) =
120 (1.67/1.32) = 152 mph
RATIO OF AVERAGING TIME
TO MEAN HOURLY
VARIATION OF WIND SPEED
WITH HEIGHT
 WIND TURBULENCE
40

30
Wind Speed
(MPH)

20
Vmean
=19.7MPH

10

0
0 3 6 9 12 15

Time (Minutes)
 Wind Turbulence
• Wind speed can be considered as two
components; mean wind speed and
fluctuating component
• Fluctuating component (turbulence) is
caused by ground roughness
• Turbulence is higher in rougher terrain and
decreases with increasing height above
ground
TOPOGRAPHIC EFFECT
 PROBABILITY FOR STRUCTURE
P = 1 − (1 − P ) n
a
PROBABILITY OF EXCEEDING DESIGN WIND P

Design Life of Structure n (years)

Annual Probability 1 5 10 25 50 100
of Exceedance Pa

0.04 0.04 0.18 0.34 0.64 0.87 0.98

0.02 0.02 0.10 0.18 0.40 0.64 0.87

0.01 0.01 0.05 0.10 0.22 0.40 0.64

0.005 0.005 0.02 0.05 0.10 0.22 0.39

 Probability for Structures
• P = probability of exceeding reference wind speed during
life of a structure
• P a = annual probability of exceeding reference wind
speed (reciprocal of Mean Recurrence Interval)
• n = design life or reference period in years
• If MRI is 50 years and design life of a building is 50 year,
there is a 64% probability that the reference wind speed
will be exceeded during the life of the building.
• If MRI is 50 years and life n=10 years, there is an 18%
probability of exceedance.
 WIND-STRUCTURE
INTERACTION
• Aerodynamics; Pressure and Force
Coefficients

• Buffeting; Along-Wind Resonance

• Aeroelastic: Galloping, Flutter

 Aerodynamics
• Windward wall
experiences inward
acting pressures
• Leeward and side
walls and roof
experience outward
acting pressures
 Aerodynamics
• Separation of flow at
sharp edges of structures
• Separation causes high
turbulence and localized
high pressures
• Aerodynamics effects are
very complex and can be
ascertained only through
experiments in wind
tunnel or full-scale
 Aerodynamics
• Special case for
building when wind
enters the building
• External and internal
pressures combine to
induce high outward
acting pressures on
leeward, side walls
and roof.
 Buffeting
• When frequency of
wind gust matches
frequency of the
structure, dynamic
response results
 Aeroelastic
• Tacoma Narrow
bridge in 1942 was
designed for 100 mph
winds, but it failed in
sustained 40 mph
wind because of
response shape