Result from previous research shows that in some Asian countries such as Vietnam, the residential structure only specifies the minimum regulation to withstand wind gusts. The local architects and contractor does not take the winds impact on the structure into consideration due to lack of technology and knowledge of the winds affect, when constructing buildings in coastal areas, especially residential.

Further investigations have shown poor and careless craftsmanship during construction by contractors decreases the maximum wind load a house can withstand. On the other hand, "residential structure exposed to wind load in excess of 140 - 150mph are undoubtedly going to incur excessive damage.” (Caulfield and others, 2012).

Common structure failure associated with wind loading on residential structure include joint connects, foundation, mostly on the building roof and wall failures

I found a few things on managing high speed wind storms. A lot of what I found deals with hurricane and other natural disasters that deal with high winds. I was surprised to learn that not much has been created in withstanding high winds. I would think by now with all the great engineer minds of the world that something has been created for it besides the buildings themselves. Creating a tall standing structure to withstand the force of high speed winds is not enough.

I can understand now why the tallest buildings in the world become so thin and pointed near the top, instead of block shaped and such. This is to reduce the surface area and effects of the wind pushing against the frame of the building. But when I looked into the effects of high speed wind on low ground units (i.e., houses, small buildings, etc) there was not much except making sure the unit is built with strong material. After going over much of what I found, I started to ask myself a new question, why should the buildings be responsible all the time for managing wind gusts? Hasn’t anyone built something to reduce or withstand those threats?

If you look at cities ravaged by natural disasters you see that the force comes directly from the ocean with nothing to stop or slow it down. Why is that? Well for one thing is costs a lot to build something to withstand those effects but still wouldn’t it be worth it if it meant saving lives?

I started looking into how levees work because the navy and marine scientists study the effects of constant waves from the ocean on the beach. What did nature do to create a safe guard? Well for one, it created those sandbars that exist near the beach to reduce the rip currents from sucking people into the ocean but it also helps reduce the effects the ocean can have on the beach and land. The sandbar and levee gave me an idea for handling wind.

I couldn’t find anything that was made for doing that, except solar wind machines but that creates energy, not slow it down. I was watching a video on how a levee works along with a sandbar and how it creates waves, which creates energy but also slows down the effects of the ocean water on land. The waves dissipated faster when spread out over a period of space, meaning a low sandbar created softer waves which crashed sooner. This meant that you need something in front of the wind coming off the ocean to slow it down. That lead me to the idea of why gardeners always put rocks in streams, one, to reduce the constant effect of running water on the ground and two, to slow down and break up any rushing streams that might occur.

If you think of taking your fingers and running them through water, it gets harder towards the end to push the water away, because of the pressure the water builds up against your fingers as you move them, but a softer current of water after they pass through. If you apply the same idea to wind, you get the same idea. For this example, I figured if you start with four tall rods and placed them a foot apart and blew air at them, they would reduce the air coming out of the back, but only very little, but if you bring them closer together, the wind gusts are reduced drastically leaving little effect on anything behind it. Now of course this kind of structure wouldn’t last because something else could come and knock it down. That is why it would need to be designed in a different manner, if you build a curved wall that went from the one side where the beach met and the other side of the wall going up to the sky you could reduce the effects of when the water comes up apart the beach during a flood or hurricane, but what makes this different would be a structure that extends upwards. That structure would not be a continuing wall but columns spaced together to reduce the effects of the high speed winds coming off the ocean. Many areas would benefit from this because it would safe their areas from being destroyed but because of the cost and inability to be placed everywhere, it could only be used in areas that can afford it, which goes against the purpose of helping those in need which tend to be areas that are the poorest or don’t have a high enough economic return in the community for there to be such a structure in the first place.

Here are some articles I found that provided some insight and videos

http://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/IITK-GSDMA/W02.pdf

http://www.sigmaprograms.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/HurricaneWindGuide1.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P7bM6rOg4w

This one provides a good idea of having columns in the way to slow things down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fajgMUS-M7k

I hope this gives you some ideas, sorry I couldn't do more.

Thank you Chris for your discussion.