Basis of Shelter Design

10/9/2020 (Permalink)

Basis of Shelter Design

Extensive testing by Texas Tech University and other wind engineering research facilities has shown that walls, ceilings, and doors commonly used in house construction cannot withstand the impact of missiles carried by extreme winds. The shelter designs in this booklet account for these findings by specifying building materials and combinations of building materials that will resist penetration by missiles in extreme winds. The shelter designs, including both materials and connections, are based on wind speeds that are rarely exceeded in the United States. Therefore, a shelter built according to these designs is expected to withstand the forces imposed on it by extreme winds without failing. Those forces may cause cracks or other signs of stress in the materials or connections used in the shelter, and they may cause materials or connections to yield. However, the intent of the designs is not to produce a shelter that will always remain completely undamaged, but rather a shelter that will enable its occupants to survive an extreme windstorm with little or no injury.

https://www.fema.gov/pdf/library/ism2.pdf

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