TY - JOUR
T1 - Reconstruction of a near-surface tornado wind field from observed building damage
AU - Luo, Jianjun
AU - Liang, Daan
AU - Weiss, Christopher
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2015 Techno-Press, Ltd.
PY - 2015/3/1
Y1 - 2015/3/1
N2 - In this study, residential building damage states observed from a post-tornado damage survey in Joplin after a 2011 EF 5 tornado were used to reconstruct the near-surface wind field. It was based on well-studied relationships between Degrees of Damage (DOD) of building and wind speeds in the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale. A total of 4,166 one-or two-family residences (FR12) located in the study area were selected and their DODs were recorded. Then, the wind speeds were estimated with the EF scale. The peak wind speed profile estimated from damage of buildings was used to fit a translating analytical vortex model. Agreement between simulated peak wind speeds and observed damages confirms the feasibility of using post-tornado damage surveys for reconstructing the near-surface wind field. In addition to peak wind speeds, the model can create the time history of wind speed and direction at any given point, offering opportunity to better understand tornado parameters and wind field structures. Future work could extend the method to tornadoes of different characteristics and therefore improve model's generalizability.
AB - In this study, residential building damage states observed from a post-tornado damage survey in Joplin after a 2011 EF 5 tornado were used to reconstruct the near-surface wind field. It was based on well-studied relationships between Degrees of Damage (DOD) of building and wind speeds in the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale. A total of 4,166 one-or two-family residences (FR12) located in the study area were selected and their DODs were recorded. Then, the wind speeds were estimated with the EF scale. The peak wind speed profile estimated from damage of buildings was used to fit a translating analytical vortex model. Agreement between simulated peak wind speeds and observed damages confirms the feasibility of using post-tornado damage surveys for reconstructing the near-surface wind field. In addition to peak wind speeds, the model can create the time history of wind speed and direction at any given point, offering opportunity to better understand tornado parameters and wind field structures. Future work could extend the method to tornadoes of different characteristics and therefore improve model's generalizability.
KW - Degree of damage
KW - Enhanced fujita scale
KW - Near-surface wind field
KW - Post-tornado damage survey
KW - Rankine vortex model
KW - Residential buildings
KW - Tornadoes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84930517313&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.12989/was.2015.20.3.389
DO - 10.12989/was.2015.20.3.389
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84930517313
SN - 1226-6116
VL - 20
SP - 389
EP - 404
JO - Wind and Structures, An International Journal
JF - Wind and Structures, An International Journal
IS - 3
ER -