A wind tunnel study has been performed to examine wind loads on canopies attached to the walls of low-rise buildings. A building with an attached canopy model of a geometric scale of 1:100 was constructed and tested in a simulated open terrain exposure. The attached canopy model was equipped with pressure taps at both upper and lower surfaces to allow for the simultaneous monitoring of wind pressures and the evaluation of the overall load. A total of 63 different building/attached canopy configurations were tested for 28 wind directions. Pressure and correlation coefficients have been generated to provide a better understanding of how the wind-loading patterns at upper and lower surfaces of the attached canopy contribute to the net loading effect. Current design guidelines and building code and standard provisions are assessed and compared with the experimental results of the present study. The influence of the geometry of each configuration on the experimental net pressure coefficients has been assessed and recommendations for design wind load standards and codes of practice are made. ¹Graduate Student,

No abstract

A tornado safe room is typically a small interior room such as an office or a bathroom which is strengthened in order to provide occupants with near-absolute protection during extreme loading events such as tornadoes. The loads associated with extreme wind loading events are generally in the form of wind induced pressures or impact loading from windborne debris. These rooms are designed to be structurally independent so as to maintain their integrity given the destruction of the surrounding structure. Prefabrication of such rooms as a stand-alone module can be an important advantage since the proper installation of the connection system is particularly critical to its structural performance. Furthermore, the safe room may be fabricated with utility services such as plumbing, electrical, and HVAC systems. Cross-laminated Timber (CLT) is an innovative engineered wood product that has been increasingly used in building construction over the past decade. It is a massive timber slab with excellent strength and stiffness properties as well as remarkable fabrication precision and dimensional stability. In this study, the feasibility and potential for a modular tornado safe room constructed out of CLT panels is discussed. Such structures may represent viable solutions for difficulties associated with residential safe room construction providing a safe, more sustainable, and potentially economic alternative to conventional systems.