Monitoring of wind effects on an instrumented low-rise building during the landfall of a severe tropical storm

Tropical cyclone-induced disasters cause significant economic losses and heavy causalities every year. Most of the casualties were caused by low-rise buildings collapsing. This study aims to investigate the characteristics of tropical cyclone-generated winds and evaluate the wind effects on a typical low-rise building under tropical cyclone conditions through field measurements. In-situ monitoring was conducted on a full-scale low-rise building during the landfall of severe tropical storm Rumbia in 2013. Both the wind velocity field around and the surface pressures on the building were recorded during the storm. Characteristics of wind velocity field near ground during the windstorm were analyzed and compared with the specifications in the load code of China. Furthermore, when the wind approached in oblique directions, the windward roof corner suffered from the worst suctions under conical vortex. It was found that the maximum shape factors under the oblique winds were significantly larger than those specified in the load code. Moreover, probability density distributions of surface pressures induced by conical vortex were found to deviate from the Gaussian distribution. The outcomes of this study are expected to be of practical and imperative use to the wind-resistant design of low-rise buildings in tropical cyclone-prone regions.