One of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history is hurricane Katrina which made landfall on August 29, 2005 at 7:10 a.m. in Plaquemines Parish, LA. Tragically, Katrina caused widespread damage and loss of life in several states but has also provided an opportunity to collect data which may be useful for design engineers and building code officials in order to design safe and strong buildings in the future. The objective of the proposed study is to gather and process perishable data on residential woodframe structures in non-flooded regions of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi that can be used by the research and design code development community to improve the performance of woodframe structures to strong wind (lateral) loading.
This Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) proposal is requesting funding to support the acquisition of perishable data on damage to and performance of woodframe structures immediately following hurricane Katrina by a multi-institutional post-disaster team made up of members from academia and industry. Such data is perishable in that once repairs begin and clearing of woodframe debris is underway it is no longer available to the engineering community in order that we may learn how to improve the performance of woodframe structures during very high winds. The vast majority of the residential building stock in the U.S. is light-frame, or woodframe, construction including the affected areas in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.
The funds requested for this SGER grant will be used for (1) travel to and around the affected area in mid to late September for the post-disaster team of structural wood and wind experts, and specifically to (2) record damage to residential woodframe structures for 4 days systematically working from the edge of the hurricane path and inland toward the coast. A small amount of support costs is also requested for materials such as film, gasoline, etc. No personnel time is requested, and only minimal travel-related expenses for the university team members are being requested. All industry personnel participating with the team have agreed to pay their own expenses. These include the "APA-The Engineered Wood Association" team organized by the APA Vice President Tom Williamson and Steven Pryor, the lateral force resisting systems manager at Simpson Strong Tie. Thus the proposed effort is a collaboration of academics, code developers, professional engineers, and industry.
The intellectual merit of the proposed SGER project will be mainly the use of real-time GIS applications, correlation of severe and moderate wind damage with NOAA wind speed data, the later of which will help with development of performance-based wind engineering concepts.
The broader impacts of the proposed research includes the dissemination of data that can be used to improve the performance of woodframe structures through design code development, thus decreasing risk to families living in woodframe houses, as well as reducing damage.
