With hurricane season just two weeks away, researchers at Florida International University on Wednesday tested how manufactured homes hold up against powerful winds.
Around 20 people, including experts from FIU, the University of Kansas, and the University of Alabama, gathered at the Wall of Wind facility at FIU’s Engineering Center, one of the most advanced hurricane simulation labs in the country.
As a 12-fan system, 14 feet high and 20 feet wide, spit out wind speeds starting around 130 miles per hour and rising up to Category 5 conditions at 157 miles per hour, the walls of a manufactured home shook and then the whole structure rolled over.
“It is letting us observe how that progressive failure happens, which leads us to design solutions,” said University of Kansas researcher Elaina Sutley. “And those solutions become a really important change that reduces losses and saves lives.”
The Wall of Wind started with just two fans in 2005. It was upgraded two years later to six fans. The grand 12-fan system was unveiled in 2012.
Experts say manufactured homes are more vulnerable to tornados and hurricanes than almost any other structure. During Hurricane Charley in 2004, for instance, about 2800 manufactured homes were destroyed and another 1000 were uninhabitable.
Though building codes have been updated and most are now anchored with metal rods and concrete, older ones and shabbily made models are still around.
On Wednesday, there were three rounds of testing. During the first one, which included 130 mile per hour winds, pieces of the home’s roof and tiling were blown away.
Then came a second round of testing. At 150 miles per hour wind the home began to sway.
Finally the experts cut some of the metal anchors and the manufactured home lifted from the ground and tumbled over.
The researchers said continued experiments like this could help improve building codes, strengthen manufactured housing, and make communities in hurricane-prone areas safer.
“The main advantage of these tests is that we are for the first time able to do it at full scale at the wall of wind,” said Wall of Wind Director Arindam Gan Chowdhury. “In the field, we can only see the destruction.”
