Experimental Investigation of Wind-Driven Rain Propagation in a Building Interior
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 7
Abstract
Posthurricane surveys have shown that building interior damage often results from water intrusion into the building interior. The interior damage can make up 50%–100% of the total building loss; therefore, its accurate evaluation and quantification are necessary for estimation of hurricane losses. In this research, water propagation into a building’s interior was experimentally investigated. Large-scale building models with gable and hip roofs were tested for three exterior damage states. The results showed that for the light damage state, the very small area of the roof and wall defects and breaches does not allow wind circulation inside the building, and as a result, the rain affected only localized areas with defects. However, for the more severe damage states, the areas of breaches were large enough to allow wind circulation inside the building, and the water propagation path is highly affected by the internal wind flow. The findings from the current study can be implemented in hurricane loss models and improve their accuracy by estimating the water distribution inside the building.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The Florida Sea Grant College Program (FSGCP) supported this work (Grant No. R/C-S- 63-B). The opinions, findings, and conclusions presented in this article are those of the authors alone, and do not necessarily represent the views of FSGCP. The authors would also like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Florida Department of Emergency Management, the Dissertation Year Fellowship program provided by Florida International University, and the University of Florida for the loan of the precipitation imaging probe.
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Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 7 • July 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 17, 2019
Accepted: Jan 15, 2020
Published online: Apr 20, 2020
Published in print: Jul 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Sep 20, 2020
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