With Hurricane Irma set to make landfall in Florida this weekend, Western University engineers are recreating high-wind conditions to better understand how to create buildings that can withstand such harsh conditions.
The engineers work in a lab called the Insurance Research Lab for Better Homes, affectionately nicknamed the Three Little Pigs research lab among the researchers due to the nature of their work – which involves utilizing a complicated system of fans to generate hurricane-level winds strong enough to blow off roofing.
Lead researcher and engineer Greg Kopp and his students build typical structures in the lab then subject the mock-ups to artificial gusts to see how they fare.
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“Ultimately we can take it up to the point where the roof fails,” Kopp told
CBC. “And we can understand how strong it is and develop models to help engineers make it stronger and more efficient.”
The data collected from these stress tests is shared with the insurance industry and manufacturers of building products.
Kopp found that after many stress tests, keeping the building’s skin – its siding, sheathing and roofing – is perhaps one of the most important things during wind storms. He explained that should any piece of a building’s exterior be ripped off, it could leave the rest of the structure exposed to rain, leading to eventual water damage.
Building exterior pieces torn off by the wind can also turn into deadly missiles. CBC reported that a significant percentage of injuries and deaths during windstorms are caused by flying debris.
Kopp explained that even the simplest changes to construction, such as the type of nails used, can determine whether a building can stand up to a storm or otherwise.
“It might be as low as 5% higher construction costs to save the whole structure,” he said.
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