The objective of the research is to collect and archive perishable damage data on structural systems to determine failure mechanisms in wood residential buildings following the Wednesday, April 27 2011 Tuscaloosa, AL tornado. The project will study the building damage patterns in a tornado that caused catastrophic loss to many existing residential structures. A multi-university team of volunteers, consisting of structural engineering faculty, wood scientists and students will conduct forensic investigations throughout the tornado?s damage path. The main research hypothesis is whether implementing structural improvements similar to those adopted in hurricane-prone regions for residential wood structures can also improve housing in tornado-prone regions. The data collection methodology will include both active and passive collection methods, which will establish the level of structural damage and develop general contours of damage showing the maximum force levels throughout the tornado track.
These observations will contribute new knowledge on spatial characteristics of tornado force. Structural failures will be categorized into member failure or connection failure, and the prevalence of each type (particularly of roof-to-wall-connection) will be documented. The surveyed damage pattern will reveal the relationship between the visible debris cloud diameter and the swath of extreme high suction on the ground. The project will yield 1) a publicly-available database of residential buildings damage ratings and failure mechanisms that can readily be used by the engineering research community and 2) an estimation of damage intensity distribution (EF-scale) within the tornado track. These results are essential field dataset for evaluating community vulnerability from tornadoes and as support data for developing realistic retrofit techniques for tornado-resilient housing. The graduate students working on this project will also be exposed to unique educational experience in wind engineering.
The purpose of this project is to collect perishable field damage data from the 2011 Tuscaloosa Tornado in order to improve engineering understanding of tornado hazard. A research team consisted of researchers, engineers, and students was deployed to Tuscaloosa right after the event and recorded wind damage using GIS tagged photos and videos. The intellectual merit outcome from the project includes accurate mapping of damage along the tornado path and a dual-level tornado design philosophy concept proposed by the research group based on the observation. These results were disseminated through multiple journal and conference articles and a technical final report available to the public online. Before the investigation, the engineering community considers tornado event to be overly violent thus cannot be designed for. The findings from this research project indicated that majority of tornado induced damage can be reduced or eliminated through proper retrofit and design procedures. This observation has started a series of follow-up research in tornado resistant structures. The broader impact outcome of this project include unique educational experience on post-disaster field data collection for students from University of Florida and University of Alabama, recommendations on the inclusion of tornado event in future ASCE design load specifications based on the collected data, and the tornado damage information made available for public education purpose through an interactive GIS map online developed by the project team. Overall, this project has made available much needed data for public education about tornado safety which can be used by any tornado related hazard mitigation effort in the future.
