Tornado-induced wind loads on a community of low-rise buildings

An innovative wind chamber study on wind loads induced by tornado-like vortices (TLVs) on a realistic, geometrically complex built community is performed at the WindEEE Dome tornado simulator at Western University, Canada. The pressure distribution induced by the TLVs on the model buildings are quantified and compared to ASCE 7-22 building provisions, revealing that the building code may sometimes be insufficient for side loads, uplift, and appurtenance loads. For each geometric configuration of the community, stationary TLVs with swirl ratio values of $S=$ 0.59, 0.69 and 1.03 are simulated. Flow aerodynamics are assessed by analyzing time-averaged and instantaneous pressure coefficients. The spatial location of pressure minima conform to pressure distribution observed from flow separation, with the roof experiencing the highest pressure deficits. Instantaneous pressures were subjected to extreme value analyses, which identified short return period pressure coefficients for strong pressure deficits.