ASCE has launched a Performance-based Wind Engineering Prestandard

File: Prestandard Wind

The Prestandard for Performance-Based Wind Design developed by the Structural Engineering Institute
(SEI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) presents a recommended alternative
to the prescriptive procedures for wind design of buildings contained in the nationally adopted
standard Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures
(ASCE 7) and in the International Building Code (IBC). The intended audience for this document
includes structural engineers, architects, building component and cladding specifiers/designers,
and building officials engaged in the wind design and review of buildings. Properly implemented,
this prestandard results in buildings that are capable of achieving the wind performance objectives
specified by ASCE 7, and in many instances, superior performance to such objectives.
Designers, peer reviewers, or AHJ who possess an understanding of wind engineering may adapt
and modify these provisions to achieve higher wind performance objectives other than those specifically
required by this prestandard.

SEI has published the first edition of this prestandard in response to the increasing interest in
using performance-based approaches for the design of buildings. In addition, this prestandard
aims to help resolve conflicts in performance objectives that exist when using prescriptive procedures
for the wind design and performance-based procedures for the seismic design of individual
buildings. Major innovations introduced here include nonlinear dynamic analysis for wind
design, limited inelasticity in the Main Wind Force Resisting System elements, system-based
performance criteria, and enhanced design criteria for the building envelope.

NIST Awards $6.6 Million for Research to Help Structures Better Withstand Earthquakes, Wind and Fire https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2019/08/nist-awards-66-million-research-help-structures-better-withstand

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is awarding more than $6.6 million to fund research into improving disaster resilience.

“Natural hazards represent a significant threat to the well-being of our communities. In 2018 alone, the U.S. experienced 14 separate billion-dollar events, with total losses exceeding $91 billion. And the monetary figure does not reflect the many lives lost and countless lives disrupted,” said Howard Harary, director of NIST’s Engineering Laboratory, which manages the Disaster Resilience Grant Research Program. “Each of these grants represents research that is a substantial step toward creating a more disaster resilient nation.”

Awardees in Wind Engineering included:

Florida Institute of Technology ($421,000)
For a project to develop a wireless sensor network system and lidar experiments to characterize wind profiles near the ground and strong wind loads on nonstructural components of buildings (such as architectural details or electrical systems).

Texas Tech University
($667,000) To develop innovative methods for measuring and modeling short-term and long-term social and health effects of windstorms and their impact on the built environment.
($582,000) To deploy new 4D measurement and modeling techniques to advance understanding of windstorm characteristics and provide input and validation of numerical, experimental and empirical modeling efforts.

The University of Illinois ($498,000)
To close fundamental knowledge gaps through the development and use of sensors to measure pressure, wind and wind load (the force wind exerts on a structure) characteristics in thunderstorm, tornado and tornado-like environments.