Projects

Development of innovative non-intrusive load transfer mechanism to reduce hurricane-induced failures

Objectives

From Maine to Texas, the U.S. coast is vulnerable to hurricane impacts. Recent hurricanes have shredded public trust in the safety and resiliency of the built environment. Damages during these extreme wind events highlight the weaknesses inherent in coastal residential building construction and underscore the need for improving their structural performance. The overall objective of this project was to improve hurricane resiliency of coastal residential buildings by developing an innovative, non-intrusive advanced fiber composite connection system to create effective continuous load paths from roof to walls and walls to foundations.

The individual objectives were:

  1. To provide Category 1 to 4 hurricane-induced wind, rain, and debris environment for controlled and repeatable testing on typical residential building, components, and connections
  2. To develop and validate a non-intrusive connection system, providing continuous load path for new and existing coastal buildings
  3. To provide cost-benefit analyses of the proposed connection system

Methodology

The research was performed by designing, testing, and validating the innovative continuous load path system employing high performance advanced fiber composite. For such testing and validation, the team used the state-of-the-art 6-fan Wall of Wind which is currently operational at the engineering campus of FIU.

Rationale

The project has been completed. The new non-intrusive connection systems for creating the continuous load path in buildings have been developed and tested. The newly developed non-intrusive and innovative Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRP) connections system will have significant practical applications in improving the hurricane resiliency of coastal residential buildings by providing continuous load paths for any possible combination of hurricane effects (wind, rain, debris), and providing means for rapid, cost-effective retrofits through 12 minimally intrusive techniques. The structural and economical feasibility, constructibility, and performance of the proposed FRP connections system have already been validated through detailed experimental investigations. The new FRP connections system has several advantages over the existing metallic intrusive connections.

In addition, an extensive aerodynamic database based on Wall of Wind experiments and a new test protocol was developed for testing inter-component connections under simulated tri-axial loading, as opposed to simple uni-axial loading (current practice). Findings confirm that current uni-axial testing methods tend to overestimate the actual load capacities of connections, which may lead to serious under-design and building failures during high wind events. The outcome of this research will lead to better design codes and practices for hurricane-resistant design of building structures.

For more information, contact Florida Sea Grant Research Coordinator Charles Sidman (csidman@ufl.edu).