DOWN FROM THE CLOUDS
Engineering researchers are battling the wind by studying its effects on structures after a storm.
Written by Josh Murray
A Storm Shelter that survived the Oklahoma city tornado in 1999.A tornado blows through a small Texas town, debris flying into buildings and cars, with lives being threatened. Ernst Kiesling and other Texas Tech engineering researchers are battling the forces of the wind by studying the effects of Mother Nature on structures after these terrifying storms.
Texas Tech University engineers began thinking about how to build an above-ground tornado shelter after a major storm devastated Lubbock in 1970. Now, 33 years later, some of those same engineers have not only developed that shelter but also have played an integral role in establishing national shelter building standards.
The shelter Texas Tech developed can be built as closets, bathrooms or they can be built in a garage. The concept drew major national media attention on NBC’s Dateline after the May 27, 1997, tornado virtually wiped out a rural subdivision in the small central Texas town of Jarrell.
Ernst Kiesling, Ph.D., Texas Tech professor of civil engineering and director of the university’s storm shelter program, said that it was the 1999 tornado in Oklahoma City that drew attention to the need for standard building codes for aboveground storm shelters.
A shelter designed using plans similar to Texas Tech’s plans survived the storm and is credited with saving the lives of two women. The Federal Emergency Management Agency began awarding grants for residents to build wind-resistant shelters, and the boom was on, but the lack of shelter standards and the dearth of experience in design and construction of shelters led to many quality issues.
Kiesling then invited a number of shelter manufacturers to Texas Tech to discuss the issues and plan a course of action. The National Storm Shelter Association grew out of that meeting. Shortly thereafter, Kiesling was appointed executive director.
“Our dilemma now is to encourage shelters to be built, but we want them to be of high quality, lest people are led to a false sense of security,” Kiesling said. “We don’t ever want to dictate that shelters are required, but if products are marketed as shelters, consumers need to know that they are getting quality products.”
The International Code Council and the National Storm Shelter Association signed the first agreement on storm shelter building standards at the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington, D.C., in June 2002. Kiesling said the new joint standards consolidate existing references about shelter standards published by the National Storm Shelter Association, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross into one standard to provide measurable and enforceable provisions for designing storm shelters. The new joint code will regulate the design, construction and installation of safe and economical shelters.
“The concept of the above-ground storm shelter grew out of research at Texas Tech,” said Kiesling. Texas Tech’s Wind Science and Engineering Research Center is internationally known for research aimed at mitigating the effects of extreme winds. One of the early successes was the development of an above-ground storm shelter that provides near absolute protection even in the strongest tornados. Texas Tech researchers have traveled to tornado and hurricane sites to evaluate damage and gain an understanding of how to construct buildings and shelters to withstand winds.
As a result of their research, Texas Tech scientists and engineers have contributed to two Federal Emergency Management Agency publications, “Taking Shelter from the Storm,” and “Design and Construction Guidelines for Community Shelters.”
“The primary purpose of the National Storm Shelter Association is to foster quality in the shelter industry and to distinguish those products and producers that meet or exceed the high levels of quality represented by widely recognized standards,” said Kiesling. “Our partnership in establishing a consensus standard represents a significant step toward achieving the goals of the National Storm Shelter Association.”
Kiesling said these standards will evolve into a national consensus standard. Producers, engineers, architects and public members will be on a committee to closely scrutinize the standards and evolve into national consensus. After agreeing on the standards, they will be offered to building code jurisdictions for them to adopt into their codes. After that, it will become law for any shelter to meet the standard.
“We’re elated with this step because it will be significant in the long run to improve the quality of shelters,” he said.
Kiesling and Texas Tech wind engineers have now turned their attention to large-scale above-ground storm shelters suitable for schools and other public buildings. Past research had focused on small, single family shelters.
“A number of large, community shelters are now being built,” said Kiesling. “In some instances, the entire population of a school, nursing home or business will be protected.”
“For a tornado, people are inside the shelter for a relatively short time,” Kiesling said. “But in a hurricane, people may need to spend hours in the shelter, so the shelter must have provisions for the occupants’ physical needs.”
“Our research continues to find ways to economically provide protection from extreme winds and to reduce the damage they cause,” said Kiesling.
Story produced by the Office of Communications and Marketing
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Tornado Photos courtesy: Texas NOAA Photo Library; NOAA Central Library; OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory
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