THE IMPACT OF EXTREME WIND EVENTS ON STRUCTURES

Abstract
by
Kyle Butler

Severe wind storm events, categorized as events which inflict a significant

amount of damage as a result of wind, are difficult to both simulate and quan-
tify with an acceptable degree of confidence. This experimental work focuses on
the development of multiple simulation frameworks to simulate salient features of
severe wind events and to assess their load effects on prismatic scale models.
Thunderstorm generated gust fronts, and associated downbursts, constitute
various extreme wind events which cause significant damage to life and property.
Particularly vulnerable are low to high-rise buildings, transmission lines, industrial
structures, wind turbines and possibly long span bridges. Similarly, larger scale
severe wind events (i.e. hurricanes) have a more pronounced direct impact on
urban environments as well, producing damaging flow environments in special
cases as a result of various situational factors. Understanding the interaction
between the built environment and these extreme events is critical to the design
of structures, ensuring their resilience to these hazards for post-event functionality
and the safety of occupants.
In order to assess the impact these severe events have on structures, novel
experimental approaches are developed to simulate the various features of these
severe events. Downburst outflows and gust fronts are simulated using three tech-
niques: (i) a flat plate which can be oriented to a high incidence to the oncoming
 Kyle Butler

flow in a wind tunnel, (ii) a computational model of a rotating flat plate within
a numerical wind tunnel and (iii) a novel facility that uses multiple small fans to
tailor the oncoming flow within a wind tunnel (through a collaborative effort with
Miyazaki University and the Center of Excellence on Wind Effects in Urban Ar-
eas at Tokyo Polytechnic University). A severe wind flow environment within an
urban setting is developed utilizing a computational domain, with both flow visu-
alization and wind tunnel modeling, to assess attendant damage patterns caused
by the flow field on the built environment, particularly to cladding and facades.
Prismatic models are subjected to the simulated flow fields, capturing the
resulting surface pressures. These pressure results are then analyzed and compared
with characteristics developed in response to synoptic boundary layer flow fields.
The data is examined using a host of time, frequency and time-frequency based
analysis techniques, delineating salient features in the transient flow fields that
may depart from those observed in the typical synoptic boundary layer winds.
The results presented herein demonstrate that simple, prismatic structures ex-
perience significant changes in the resulting surface pressures when impacted by
a gust front-like flow. Surface pressures show a marked increase/decrease in coef-
ficient values, beyond those developed in boundary layer flow fields. The spectral
description of the local pressure fluctuations and integral loads demonstrate dif-
fering behaviors based on the length of the storm event. Time-frequency wavelet
scalograms highlight temporal variations in the frequency content in response to
the oncoming flow field. The computational model of an urban environment sub-
jected to a severe wind event reveals various features within the developed flow
field, resulting from multiple factors, that enhance surface pressures and facilitate
 Kyle Butler

debris impacts which yield detrimental effects on the building facade and exterior
glass.
The results of these investigations serve to examine and delineate whether the
effects of gust front outflows and other severe wind events are indeed captured by
the simulation techniques provided herein, to assess the impacts of severe events on
structures based on the experimental results in this study, and to fundamentally
contribute to the general body of transient aerodynamics knowledge base.