Field measurements and wind tunnel simulation of hurricane wind loads on single family dwellings

Recent damage occurring during hurricane activity has demonstrated the urgent need to improve the hurricane-resistance of constructed facilities, particularly for residential buildings which continue to bear a disproportionately high portion of the economic losses. The economic losses due to hurricanes can be mitigated by improving the structural performance of buildings, and this requires us to improve our understanding of hurricane wind loads on houses.; In response to this need, through the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program (FCMP), a residential building, named as House FL-27, was instrumented during Tropical Storm Isidore (2002) and Hurricane Ivan (2004). The wind pressure instrumentation successfully recorded high-resolution wind pressures on this single family house from two storms. This dissertation presents the methods developed to analyze the extreme wind loads measured on House FL-27. The uncertainties of the full-scale measurement system associated with corrections for reference pressures, temperature variations, and calibration errors are analyzed. Once corrected, the full-scale test results are used to evaluate the ability of the wind tunnel simulation methods to reproduce model-scale wind pressure results comparable to full-scale extreme wind loads. Probability density functions of wind pressure fluctuations and the effects of spatial and time averaging on the peak wind loads are investigated based on full-scale and wind tunnel test results. Through comparison of full-scale and wind tunnel test results with the provisions of the current wind load design code, ASCE 7-05, the design wind loads on the critical roof corner areas of the subject house are assessed. The effects of terrain exposures and surrounding houses on wind loads are also investigated as part of this study.