Wind-related Disasters Research Articles

Design of temporary, conditional, general and highly influential buildings for tropical cyclones and severe local storms

This paper first discusses the causes of damage to buildings and structures due to various types of winds including daily winds and some extremely strong winds. Regarding devastating wind-induced disasters due to tropical cyclones (TC), the importance of combined effects of wind and water hazards is emphasized. It also points out human errors hidden in damage scenarios, especially for large buildings. The importance of cladding/component design, the significance of debris impacts, and the effects of sudden changes in internal pressures are also emphasized. The design principles for buildings and structures are also examined, and the crucial differences among building performances against TCs and severe local storms such as tornadoes and downbursts are discussed. Design load levels for temporary buildings including scaffoldings and construction offices and for conditional buildings and structures including cranes, movable roofs and so on are also discussed. Next, design issues of tornado effects on highly important and highly influential buildings such as nuclear power plants are discussed. Finally, to cope with the future increasing trend of wind-related disasters, the importance of decarbonization and full-scale storm simulators are emphasized.

A statistical analysis of the distribution of convective windstorms and their radar characteristics in Hubei Province, China. Part 2

A statistical analysis of the distribution of convective windstorms and their radar characteristics in Hubei Province, China. Part 2

Extreme Wind Variability and Wind Map Development in Western Java, Indonesia

Wind-related disasters are one of the most frequent disasters in Indonesia. It can cause severe damages of residential construction, especially in the world’s most populated island of Java. Understanding the characteristics of extreme winds is crucial for mitigating the disasters and for defining structural design standards. This study investigated the spatiotemporal variations of extreme winds and pioneered a design wind map in Indonesia by focusing on western Java. Based on gust data observed in recent years from 24 stations, the extreme winds exhibit a clear annual cycle where northwestern and southeastern sides of western Java show out-of-phase relationship due to reversal monsoons. Meanwhile, extreme wind occurrences are mostly affected by small-scale weather systems, regardless of seasons and locations. To build the wind map, we used bias-corrected gust from ERA5 and applied the Gumbel method to predict extreme winds with different return periods. The wind map highlights some drawbacks of the current national design standards, which use single wind speed values regardless of location and return period. Beside a fundamental improvement for wind design, this study will benefit disaster risk mapping and other applications that require extreme wind speed distribution.

Wind disasters adaptation in cities in a changing climate: A systematic review.

Wind-related disasters will bring more devastating consequences to cities in the future with a changing climate, but relevant studies have so far provided insufficient information to guide adaptation actions. This study aims to provide an in-depth elaboration of the contents discussed in open access literature regarding wind disaster adaptation in cities. We used the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to refine topics and main contents based on 232 publications (1900 to 2019) extracted from Web of Science and Scopus. We conducted a full-text analysis to filter out focal cities along with their adaptation measures. The results show that wind disaster adaptation research in cities has formed a systematic framework in four aspects: 1) vulnerability and resilience of cities, 2) damage evaluation, 3) response and recovery, and 4) health impacts of wind disaster. Climate change is the background for many articles discussing vulnerability and adaptation in coastal areas. It is also embedded in damage evaluation since it has the potential to exacerbate disaster consequences. The literature is strongly inclined towards more developed cities such as New York City and New Orleans, among which New York City associated with Hurricane Sandy ranks first (38/232). Studies on New York City cover all the aspects, including the health impacts of wind disasters which are significantly less studied now. Distinct differences do exist in the number of measures regarding the adaptation categories and their subcategories. We also find that hard adaptation measures (i.e., structural and physical measures) are far more popular than soft adaptation measures (i.e., social and institutional measures). Our findings suggest that policymakers should pay more attention to cities that have experienced major wind disasters other than New York. They should embrace the up-to-date climate change study to defend short-term disasters and take precautions against long-term changes. They should also develop hard-soft hybrid adaptation measures, with special attention on the soft side, and enhance the health impact study of wind-related disasters.

Framework for Measuring the Resilience of Utility Poles of an Electric Power Distribution Network

The utility poles of an electric power distribution system are frequently damaged by wind-related disasters. This study notes that the wooden poles are particularly vulnerable to such disasters and the failures of the poles can cause a network-level failure leading to short- or long-term power outages. To mitigate the problem, this study proposes a framework for measuring the resilience of the wooden utility poles based on the angular deflection of a pole due to the wind force. Given the existing inclination angle of a pole, the angular deflection is measured by finite element analysis using ANSYS® Workbench1 to determine the resilience area under various wind speeds. For this, the conditions of load and support for a pole, which are called boundary conditions in ANSYS®, are generated. The proposed framework also includes an approach to cost–benefit analysis that compares different strategies for corrective action. The results of the case study in which the framework was applied show that the proposed framework can be effectively utilized by electric power distribution companies to increase the resilience of their systems.

Damage to buildings and structures due to recent devastating wind hazards in East Asia

Extreme wind events such as typhoons and tornadoes can cause devastating damage to structures and huge losses to human societies. This paper introduces recent devastating wind-related disasters in East Asia, including disasters in Japan, the Philippines and China, from 2013 to 2016. In particular, it describes several post-disaster investigations including those on Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 in the Philippines; typhoon Mujigae and two typhoon-associated tornadoes in October, 2015, in Guangdong, China; and a tornado in June, 2016 in Yancheng, China. Meteorological features, damage details and failure mechanisms of structures, factors related to damage generation and spread, scales to evaluate storms, estimations of tornado wind speeds and so on are discussed, with the aim of mitigating future wind-related disasters and to create safer and sustainable societies. Lessons derived from aerodynamic effects, cladding and component performances, debris impacts, building arrangements, fatigue effects, construction methods, etc. together with suggestions for wind-resistant design of buildings are given.

CFD Simulation On The Pressure Distribution For An Isolated Single-Story House With Extension: Grid Sensitivity Analysis

Damage due to wind-related disasters is increasing due to global climate change. Many studies have been conducted to study the wind effect surrounding low-rise building using wind tunnel tests or numerical simulations. The use of numerical simulation is relatively cheap but requires very good command in handling the software, acquiring the correct input parameters and obtaining the optimum grid or mesh. However, before a study can be conducted, a grid sensitivity test must be conducted to get a suitable cell number for the final to ensure an accurate result with lesser computing time. This study demonstrates the numerical procedures for conducting a grid sensitivity analysis using five models with different grid schemes. The pressure coefficients (CP) were observed along the wall and roof profile and compared between the models. The results showed that medium grid scheme can be used and able to produce high accuracy results compared to finer grid scheme as the difference in terms of the CP values was found to be insignificant.

International Workshop on Wind-Related Disasters and Mitigation

International Workshop on Wind-Related Disasters and Mitigation

Research on the loss of group residential buildings under fierce winds

The prediction and assessment of the loss of group residential buildings under fierce winds are not only an important but also a very basic work. Many rural buildings, especially situated in southeastern of China, have suffered great damage and losses during such wind events in past 10 years. One new methodology is proposed in this study in order to estimate and evaluate the loss reasonably based on group building types and distribution, wind intensities and directions. This methodology comprehensively considers the mechanisms of interaction between the roof tiles, roof panels, doors and windows, which are more likely damaged seriously during fierce winds, the physical properties of those components, the wind pressure coefficients on the surface of group buildings in different wind directions, etc. Then Monte Carlo simulation is used to estimate the damage of group residential buildings under simulated fluctuating winds with different speeds and measured typhoon records. The simulation results indicate that our proposed quantified assessment method can be utilized for official, developers, architects, designers and homeowners to estimate and mitigate the losses that might be experienced during wind-related disasters either pre- or post-construction.

From Load Estimation to Performance Estimation—From Model-Scale Test to Full-Scale Test: With Special Interest in Asian Region

This paper first discusses the current status of natural-hazard-induced disasters, with special focus on devastating wind-related disasters in the Asian region. The importance of the combined effects of wind and water hazards, the importance of performance of cladding and components in wind resistant design of buildings, and deterioration of metal roofing systems of long-span structures mainly caused by fatigue of fixing joints due to daily solar heating effects are demonstrated. Some human errors caused by lack of attention to aerodynamic and structural behaviors are also indicated. Then, psychological impacts and social impacts are discussed, and common underestimation of social impacts of wind-induced disasters on society is pointed out. The main reason for repeated wind-induced damage is lack of information on the real performance of claddings, components and main frames under wind actions. The demand and necessity for full-scale tests are emphasized, aiming to check the performance of building and structural systems under realistic and controlled conditions of extremely strong actions of wind, rain, snow, fire, solar heating and so on. Finally, the academic and social significance of the full-scale storm simulator is discussed.

Wind-related Disasters Management and Prevention Improvement Strategy

The main purpose of the paper is to analyse the current situation and to provide suggestions for improving the Latvian system of wind disaster management by examining such sources as various scientific literature, different normative acts and specific practical examples. This paper briefly reviews the improvement possibilities to the Latvian system of wind disaster management by interaction between business, society and the state. The proposed hypothesis – timely, determined and coordinated interagency and interdepartmental cooperation – can minimize the effect and consequences of wind-related disasters. Several research methods, such as the analysis of academic and professional publications, and logical and comparative analysis, are applied in this research. The research results relate to the creation of disaster management policy methodology through increasing involvement of different stakeholders and development of deterrence measures. The main findings relate to the analysis of interaction of different public and private institutions for the management of wind induced disasters.

Wind-related Disasters in Malaysia and Changes in Regulations and Practice

Wind-related Disasters in Malaysia and Changes in Regulations and Practice

Wind-related Disasters in Bangladesh and Changes in Regulations and Practice

Wind-related Disasters in Bangladesh and Changes in Regulations and Practice

Recent Wind-related Disasters in Korea

Recent Wind-related Disasters in Korea

Wind engineering in Africa

The International Association for Wind Engineering (IAWE) has very few contacts in Africa, the second-largest continent. This paper reviews important wind-related African issues. They all require data on wind climate, which are very sparse in Africa. Wind engineering in Africa can assist in collecting data on wind climate, developing wind energy, reducing the adverse effects of wind and related drifting sand in building activities and agriculture, and limiting other wind-related disasters, in environment and ecology, such as those caused by erosion and fire. The paper aims to encourage Africa-oriented supportive research, especially better data coverage; quality control of existing data; search of historical archives; generation of data by numerical weather analyses; and validation of extrapolation techniques. We envisage promising cooperation with Africa, despite the fact that African countries do not currently participate in the international exchange and cooperation in these fields. African priorities presently seem to be different, while funds and other facilities are lacking. Capacity building in wind engineering and support issues should be initiated by agencies such as UNEP, FAO, EU, WMO, NGOs, etc. The necessity of professional wind engineering input in these activities should also be recognized. Interaction of IAWE with these agencies is necessary.

National Wind Hazards Reduction Program

Recent events such as Hurricanes Andrew and Iniki have shown that wind-related disasters occur in the United States with consequences much more far-reaching and severe than expected. During this International Decade for Natural Disaster Mitigation, (1991–2000), the U.S. wind engineering community is calling for the establishment of a wind hazards reduction program analogous in function to the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. This proposed wind hazards program would provide badly needed leadership in improving our understanding of wind-induced structural behavior, in improving codes of practice, in providing advanced methods for evaluating and predicting wind loadings, and in providing an impetus to structural engineers to develop new technologies for improving structural performance. In the present paper, the need for such a program is discussed, and its organization and goals are outlined.