Reconnaissance of Buildings Impacted by the 2018 Tornadoes in Ottawa, Canada
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VIEW THE REPLYPublication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 34, Issue 4
Abstract
On September 21, 2018, two major tornadoes occurred in Ottawa, Canada. The most severe was an Enhanced Fujita (EF3) storm that happened in Dunrobin area. The second major storm took place in the Arlington Woods area and was an EF2 tornado. These severe events destroyed numerous buildings, and thus a field investigation was conducted to observe the damages in the structures. The survey included both low-rise commercial and residential buildings in the Dunrobin and Arlington Woods areas; in the first area many buildings experienced extensive damage and in many cases local collapse, whereas in the second area the damage was limited on garages and roofs. The paper presents a set of damage-assessment data with a focus on damage failure modes and functionality of the buildings during the inspection. Lessons learned from the damages are finally presented, with comparisons with evidence from past tornadoes in Ontario that induced damage to infrastructure. The damage to the buildings surveyed is characterized based on different levels and discussion is included regarding the way residential buildings should be built to assure resilience if they are affected by tornadoes. The field investigation based on the performance of the examined buildings suggests a need for new design and retrofit methods to strengthen buildings envelopes. The buildings should have adequate anchorage of the walls into the foundation and well-constructed connections of the roof to the walls.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the support provided by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) grant.
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©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Sep 10, 2019
Accepted: Mar 11, 2020
Published online: May 21, 2020
Published in print: Aug 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Oct 21, 2020
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