Structural Integrity in the Face of Natural Disaster Civil

STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY

IN THE FACE OF NATURAL DISASTER

CIVIL ENGINEERING

On March 3, 2019, an EF4 tornado touched down in Lee County, causing widespread devastation. Twenty-three people tragically lost their lives in Beauregard, a community just a few miles from Auburn. In the wake of this disaster, one Auburn wind engineer conducted on-site investigations and used drones and other equipment to study the wreckage. “Time and time again I have been told there is no value in studying building performance in such extreme wind events, but with each detailed assessment my research team collects more evidence to the contrary,” said David Roueche, assistant professor of civil engineering. His team has studied both manufactured homes and site-built homes that have the potential to advance their understanding of tornadoes and reduce both economic impacts and loss of life. In particular, his team is focused on studying the successes – homes that performed better than surrounding homes even while experiencing nominally the same high winds. For example, several manufactured and site-built homes that the team studied sustained extensive damage, but occupants would have been able to survive, likely without any injury, while surrounding homes were tossed or completely demolished. “While the home may have been torn down after the tornado and a new home installed, I would argue that its performance was a resounding success, having provided a safe place of refuge, at an affordable cost, during an extreme weather event that far exceeded design conditions,” Roueche said. While it is not currently feasible to build homes that can remain undamaged during an EF4 tornado and be affordable to a majority of people, Roueche said his team’s research will hopefully underscore how important even small changes in home construction can be at improving life safety in the most violent events. The team is continuing to analyze the data collected from field deployments, developing numerical models from the data and will soon be able to conduct full-scale testing in the new Advanced Testing Laboratory. “As we continue the research, we are actively involved in the community as it rebuilds, participating in outreach sessions to do our part to educate and engage our communities to be safer from future events,” Roueche said.

DAVID ROUECHE

Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering) 334-844-6256 dbr0011@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/DRoueche