Wind is one of Mother Nature’s most destructive forces. It is estimated that, in the United States, 1.2 million homes were damaged by wind during the 2005 hurricane season, of which about 90,000 of those sustained major damage or were destroyed. A major factor for this damage is due to a failure in the way the buildings are designed and constructed. Government agencies and insurance companies are spending millions of dollars in research to come up with better design and construction methods to reduce this impact. This presentation will discuss some of the research programs currently in place to examine the destructive effects on building elements.
Dr. Bas Baskaran, P.Eng., Group Leader and Senior Research Officer, NRC-IRC
Dr. Baskaran will present some of the research and developments that are taking place at the NRC-IRC under the SIGDERS (Special Interest Group for the Dynamic Evaluation of Roofing Systems). One tool that was recently developed with the Roofing Consultants Institute (RCI) is a Wind-Roof Calculator on Internet (Wind-RCI), which enables the user to design a proper roof system based on different parameters of the building.
Dr. F. Michael Bartlett, P.Eng., Professor, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Western Ontario
Dr. Bartlett will discuss the Three Little Pigs initiative at the University of Western Ontario, which is capable of subjecting full-scale houses and other light-frame buildings to extreme wind events up to Category 5 hurricanes. Results of the testing will provide insight into better designs in construction and help reduce the effects of wind damage.
BECOR seminars are eligible for OAA Continuing Education Points