Destructive Testing under Simulated Hurricane Effects to Promote Hazard Mitigation

The human and financial toll of hurricanes on U.S. east and gulf coast communities has been immense. The International Hurricane Research Center at Florida International University focuses on a first-of-its-kind full-scale destructive testing method that can lead to understanding of hurricane-structure interaction and development of effective mitigation measures. Analogous to the effective study of the failure modes during crash testing, significantly enhancing automobile safety, and performance analysis through shake-table testing to improve seismic resistance of buildings, hurricane engineering research will improve building resiliency through full-scale destructive testing, and raise the public's awareness of the need to improve building safety and of the means to achieve this goal. This paper describes the full-scale destructive testing concept, details applications through pilot tests, illustrates the scientific approach underlying the current testing method, and discusses future plans to develop innovative techniques to mitigate hurricane destruction. This research is a necessary condition for available and affordable insurance, which is paramount to sustain the economy of the U.S. coastal states.