• Wind and Structures
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.17-41
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• 2016

To address the uncertainty of the flight trajectories caused by the turbulence and gustiness of the wind field over the roof and in the wake of a building, a 3-D probabilistic trajectory model of flat-type wind-borne debris is developed in this study. The core of this methodology is a 6 degree-of-freedom deterministic model, derived from the governing equations of motion of the debris, and a Monte Carlo simulation engine used to account for the uncertainty resulting from vertical and lateral gust wind velocity components. The influence of several parameters, including initial wind speed, time step, gust sampling frequency, number of Monte Carlo simulations, and the extreme gust factor, on the accuracy of the proposed model is examined. For the purpose of validation and calibration, the simulated results from the 3-D probabilistic trajectory model are compared against the available wind tunnel test data. Results show that the maximum relative error between the simulated and wind tunnel test results of the average longitudinal position is about 20%, implying that the probabilistic model provides a reliable and effective means to predict the 3-D flight of the plate-type wind-borne debris.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.105-110
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• 2020

This study provides a method and data for predicting the flight initiation wind speed of wind-borne debris. From the force equilibrium acting on debris including aerodynamic and inertia forces, the equation for predicting the flight initiation wind speeds are presented. Wind tunnel tests were carried out to provide necessary aerodynamic data in the equation for the debris with various aspect ratios. The proposed equation for flight initiation wind speeds was validated from free flying tests in the wind tunnel. The flights of debris were mostly initiated by slip when width to thickness was less than 10, otherwise overturning were dominant. The actual flight initiation speeds were lower than that of the computed ones. The surface boundary layer flow and the gap between the debris and surface might affect the prediction error.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.436-442
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• 2022

Hurricanes and tornadoes are the most destructive natural disasters in some central and southern states. Thus, storm shelters, which can provide emergency protections for low-rise building residents, are becoming popular nowadays. Both FEMA and ICC have published a series of manuals on storm shelter design. However, the authors found that the materials for related products in the market are heavyweight and hard to deliver and install; renovations are necessary. The authors' previous studies found that lightweight and high-performance composite materials can withstand extreme wind pressure, but some building codes are designated in wind-borne debris areas. In these areas, wind debris can reach greater than 100 mph speed. In addition, the impact damage on the composite materials is an increasing safety issue in many engineering fields; some can cause catastrophic results. Therefore, studying composite structures subjected to wind debris impact is essential. The finite element models are set up using the software Abaqus 2.0 to conduct the simulations to observe the impact resistance behavior of the carbon fiber composite sandwich panels. The selected wood debris models meet the FEMA requirements. The outcome of this study is then employed in future lab tests and compared with other material models.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.169-189
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• 2010

This paper describes the use of coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Rigid Body Dynamics (RBD) in modelling the aerodynamic behaviour of wind-borne plate type objects. Unsteady 2D and 3D Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) CFD models are used to simulate the unsteady and non-uniform flow field surrounding static, forced rotating, auto-rotating and free-flying plates. The auto-rotation phenomenon itself is strongly influenced by vortex shedding, and the realisable k-epsilon turbulence modelling approach is used, with a second order implicit time advancement scheme and equal or higher order advection schemes for the flow variables. Sequentially coupling the CFD code with a RBD solver allows a more detailed modelling of the Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) behaviour of the plate and how this influences plate motion. The results are compared against wind tunnel experiments on auto-rotating plates and an existing 3D analytical model.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.145-167
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• 2010

By using the 'failure' model approach, the effects of wind direction on the flight of sheathing panels from the roof of a model house in extreme winds was investigated. A complex relationship between the initial conditions, failure velocities, flight trajectories and speeds was observed. It was found that the local flow field above the roof and in the wake of the house have important effects on the flight of the panels. For example, when the initial panel location is oblique to the wind direction and in the region of separated flow near the roof edge, the panels do not fly from the roof since the resultant aerodynamic forces are small, even though the pressure coefficients at failure are high. For panels that do fly, wake effects from the building are a source of significant variation of flight trajectories and speeds. It was observed that the horizontal velocities of the panels span a range of about 20% - 95% of the roof height gust speed at failure. Numerical calculations assuming uniform, smooth flow appear to be useful for determining panel speeds; in particular, using the mean roof height, 3 sec gust speed provides a useful upper bound for determining panel speeds for the configuration examined. However, there are significant challenges for estimating trajectories using this method.