Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

Canada is vulnerable to severe wind storms, with significant examples being the Barrie tornado in 1985 (12 lives, $300M), the Edmonton tornado in 1987 (27 lives, $670M), and Hurricane Juan in 2003 (8 lives). The primary safety issue in these storms pertains to keeping the structure on the foundation, and the roof connected to the walls, to minimize both loss of life and economic loss. It is difficult to measure wind speeds in tornadoes and other thunderstorm winds. While mitigating this damage is what we all want, engineers actually need to know the wind speeds which could happen in order to effectively design buildings or critical infrastructure, such as electrical power transmission systems. Thus, damage surveys are used to observe the damage and infer the wind speeds associated with these storms. Since the wind speeds are not generally known, it is important to calibrate the damage-wind speed relationship. With this in mind, the objective of the project is to obtain controlled, detailed, laboratory-based data for how failures occur using realistic test methods. These data can then be used to develop the engineering models for the damage-wind speed relationship for roof failures, spanning the range of Canadian houses. We will then apply the model to: (i) develop a tool for analysis of roof failures in damage surveys, (ii) assess the wind load provisions in building codes, and (iii) extend this to provide new guidelines for building more resilient houses. The project will utilize the newly operational, full-scale testing facility, called the 'Three Little Pigs' Project, named after the famous children's story. The research should lead to improved mapping of the wind hazard for use in design in Canada, better warning systems in extreme weather, and, ultimately, to less damage. At least seven post-doctoral and post-graduate students will be trained during the course of this investigation.