Environmental design directed at decreasing the wind damage experienced from hurricanes in single-family residential communities

In 1992 hurricane Andrew inflicted approximately $25 billion in damage in Dade county, FL, resulting in the costliest hurricane in U.S. history (Landsea 1997 Internet). Documentation and analysis of hurricane Andrew's wind damage substantiates Minor and Mehta's (1979) identification of initiation points of failure in low-rise structures experienced during tomadic winds. These initiation points of failure occur at points experiencing high wind pressures which a direct resuh of poor aerodynamic configurations found in most conventional buildings (Minor and Mehta 1979 pg. 2285). If the aerodynamics of a structure influence which components of a building frequently fail, then one could reason that the aerodynamics of a community would influence which structures will frequently fail.

This study identifies five street/road patterns or typologies commonly found within a residential community. The aerodjmamic qualities of each typology are predicted and each structure in the pattern is rated according to the expectation of damage relative to the structure's location. Once these damage herarchy predictions are made a case study community is coded according to the degree of roof damage each structure experiences in order to prove or disprove the initial hypothesis. The case study is a community damaged by hurricane Andrew on 24 August 1992, located in east Culter Ridge, Florida and has an approximate area of 2.15 km^ (0.83 mi^).

Windbreak placements are suggested for improving the aerodynamics for each intersection typology along with suggestions for improving the wind flow around individual structures and their use in combating windbome debris.

The objective of this thesis is to create design recommendations to aid community designers, developers, architects, and engineers in analyzing and improving new and existing communities for extreme winds.