Investigation of Thunderstorm Winds on an Instrumented Building

The Texas Tech Wind Engineering Field Research Laboratory (WERFL) building is equipped with over 200 sensors to measure the pressure on the building. Since its inception, many pressure time histories have been documented. However, a full length thunderstorm record has never been fully studied for its effects on the building and its comparisons with larger scale synoptic winds. On August 24, 2007 a moderate thunderstorm downdraft occurred at the WERFL building with a peak gust approaching 50 mph. An investigation of this thunderstorm is contained within this paper. The large increase in wind speed and air density/pressure accompanied by downburst passage may cause increased pressures on the building. Also, the turbulent and thermodynamic characteristics of thunderstorm winds contribute to large vertical (upward) velocities which may in turn lead to stronger uplift pressures. These pressures on the building may lead to increased damage probabilities on low-rise structures. Comparisons with a non-thunderstorm record at a similar angle of attack are also carried out.