Analysis of hurricane directionality effects using event-based simulation

This paper presents an approach for evaluating directionality effects for both wind speeds and wind loads in hurricane-prone regions. The focus of this study is on directional wind loads on low-rise structures. Using event-based simulation, hurricane directionality effects are determined for an open-terrain condition at various locations in the southeastern United States. The wind speed (or wind load) directionality factor, defined as the ratio of the N-year mean recurrence interval (MRI) wind speed (or wind load) in each direction to the non-directional N-year MRI wind speed (or wind load), is less than one but increases toward unity with increasing MRI. Thus, the degree of conservatism that results from neglecting directionality effects decreases with increasing MRI. It may be desirable to account for local exposure effects (siting effects such as shielding, orientation, etc.) in design. To account for these effects in a directionality adjustment, the factor described above for open terrain would need to be transformed to other terrains/exposures. A "local" directionality factor, therefore, must effectively combine these two adjustments (event directionality and siting or local exposure directionality). By also considering the direction-specific aerodynamic coefficient, a direction-dependent wind load can be evaluated. While the data necessary to make predictions of directional wind loads may not routinely be available in the case of low-rise structures, the concept is discussed and illustrated in this paper.