Insights

The Wilkes-Barre tornado highlighted the limitations of current building design standards for predicting tornado damage, particularly for irregularly shaped buildings. While structural masonry performed well, other building types experienced significant damage. The authors propose using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), a tool from aerospace and mechanical engineering, to better understand tornado wind loads. CFD can model tornadoes interacting with buildings and provide detailed loading information, which current standards based on simplified models lack. A preliminary CFD model of an irregularly shaped building (Building B) showed complex and variable loading patterns consistent with the actual damage observed, including a "bottle opener" effect on the roof. The authors suggest that CFD can be a powerful tool for designing next-generation, tornado-resistant buildings by more accurately predicting wind loads on complex geometries.