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Construction of Low Rise Buildings in Cyclone

Prone Areas and Modification of Cyclone

Article in Journal of Energy and Power Sources · July 2015

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J. Energy Power Sources Journal of Energy
Vol. 2, No. 7, 2015, pp. 247-252 and Power Sources
Received: June 24, 2015, Published: July 30, 2015 www.ethanpublishing.com

Construction of Low Rise Buildings in Cyclone Prone

Areas and Modification of Cyclone

Shreyas Ashok Keote, Dhanendra Kumar and Rishabh Singh

Dept. of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (B.H.U), Varanasi, India
Corresponding author: Shreyas Ashok Keote (shreyas.akeote.civ11@iitbhu.ac.in)

Abstract: The Tropical cyclones are one of the worst natural hazards faced by India. This paper provides mitigating efforts to cope up
with the moderate disasters in the coastal areas. These natural hazards can never be prevented from occurring hence we should learn to
live with them until we are able to modify them to such an extent. There is a great need to modify a cyclone in present to reduce the
collateral losses. Constructions of structures against natural hazards have always been encouraged. Planning and developments of new
construction requirements for buildings are recommended in order to reduce the risk of structural damage in future. A brief introduction
to the design of different structural parts of a building to be safe in coastal areas such as roof, foundation, walls, etc. is given. Some
techniques of reducing the intensity of cyclone and modification of its path are also discussed. This paper collects the ongoing efforts
related to cyclone mitigation from a structural point proposing some recommendations for design of buildings in cyclone prone areas.
This paper also provides a little introduction to modification of intensity of cyclone.

Keywords: Tropical cyclone, mitigation efforts, minimum design standards, cloud seeding, dyn-o-mat.

1. Introduction This energy source differs from that of mid-latitude

A cyclone is an intense vortex in the atmosphere
with a closed contour of low pressure region (Eye) with
a few hundred kilometers of overall diameter of
cyclone. The wind speeds vary, along the radial
distance from the center of cyclone (Eye), from zero
magnitude at the center of the cyclone to a maximum
magnitude near the radius of maximum wind speed and
then gradually reduce in to the edge of the cyclone as
shown in Fig. 1.
Cyclonic storms draw most of their energy from the
latent heat released by the condensation of water vapor.
Fig. 1 General structure of a cyclone [1].
cyclonic storms, such as nor’easters and European
windstorms, which are fueled primarily by horizontal
temperature contrasts. The strong rotating winds of a
tropical cyclone are a result of the (partial)
conservation of angular momentum imparted by the
Earth’s rotation as air flows inwards toward the axis of
rotation. As a result, they rarely form within 5° of the
equator [2].
The whole of east coast and the upper regions of
west coast are prone to severe cyclones. Every year, on
an average five to six cyclones form in the seas and
usually one or two of them hit the land surface in these
regions. Each year an average of 119 million people
globally are exposed to the threat of tropical cyclones,
with more than 85 percent of the expected annual
deaths in Bangladesh and India alone, and each of the
top five most exposed populations - China, India, Japan,
Philippines, Bangladesh - also in Asia. The cyclone
occurrence is more in the Bay of Bengal than in the
248 Construction of Low Rise Buildings in Cyclone Prone Areas and Modification of Cyclone
Arabian Sea with the ratio of 4:1. The months of
May-June and October-November are known to
produce cyclones of severe intensity [3].
It has been observed in the post damage surveys that
enhancement in performance of a building could be
obtained by improving our construction practice, using
modified designs, using better quality of materials and
preparing well before the cyclone. The shape and
dimensions of a building, their type of roof and roof
slope determine the maximum wind speed permissible
for failure.
Modification of cyclone is the attempt to change the
amount or type of precipitation that falls from clouds,
by dispersing substances into the air that serve as cloud
condensation or ice nuclei, which alter the microphysical
processes within the cloud.
2. Mitigation Efforts
We know that cyclones are beyond the control of
humans but still some efforts can be done to minimize
their effects and reduce human losses if not
materialistic losses. In this regard, some of the efforts
are:
(1) Evacuating people to safe areas;
(2) Continuously operating the critical facilities;
(3) Quick recovery of important facilities such as
hospitals, communication facilities, transportation
facilities, etc.
For any disaster mitigation, safety of life is the most
important. As the prediction of cyclone’s landfall has
been reasonably improved in recent times, it is
possible to evacuate people from the potential storm
areas well before time. Also people are to be
evacuated from highly vulnerable buildings.
Critical functions such as hospitals, fire stations, etc.
are required to be functional during and after the
passage of cyclone. There should be different levels of
enhancements to the buildings that house critical
functions. These enhancements should be above the
building code requirements of normal buildings. Other
than modification of structures, enhancement of
building functions (electrical power, etc.) should also
be made [4].
The damage done by cyclone cannot be predicted
earlier, as changes in cyclone’s track, intensity is
common. But design of structures should be done
considering the previous storms occurred in that area.
The design requirements should at least be able to
withstand the previous storms. This step can
minimize the damage to structures. Design and
construction of important buildings like schools
should be done such that they can be repaired within
a short time [5].
3. Construction of Houses in Cyclone-Prone
Areas
Minimum standards for the design, construction and
performance of buildings to “withstand extreme
climate related natural hazard events” depending upon
their locations should be set. Modifications in design
for safeguarding houses against moderate winds
during cyclones are discussed below:
3.1 Roofs
Probably the most common area of failure during
cyclones is roofs. The reasons are inadequate sheet
thickness, less number of fasteners, inadequate
fastening devices.
The ways of protecting roofs are:
 Installing hip roofs with the pitch in the range of
25 degree to 40 degree as shown in Fig. 2;
 Avoiding overhangs of more than 18 inches at
eaves or verges [6];
 Patio roofs and verandahs to be built as separate
structure from the roof;
 Securing the main ridge using gussets, collar ties
and metal straps;
 Use of proper drive screws which go at least 50
mm in the purlin [6].
The capacity wind speed with a partial safety factor
of unity and less than 20% porosity for different types
of roof is as shown in Table 1.
 Construction of Low Rise Buildings in Cyclone Prone Areas and Modification of Cyclone
(a) Gable ended roofs gets high uplift
(b) Hip roofs gets lower uplift
(c) Pyramidal roofs gets lowest uplift
Fig. 2 Advantage of hipped roof over gable roof [7].
Table 1 Wind capacities of different types of roofs [8].
Wind capacity
Conventional gable roof 38 m sec-1
Improved gable roof 50 m sec-1
Improved hip roof 61 m sec-1
Asbestos sheet roof 72 m sec-1
Engineered building > 80 m sec-1
3.2 Doors and Windows
Any kind of opening whether needed for light or
ventilation acts as an area of stress concentration. The
reasons are non-uniform distribution of winds, across
wind vibrations.
The ways of protecting doors and windows are:
 Installation of wind locks and braces in doors;
 Every opening in the windward side to be
supported by the opening on the leeward side;
 Sum of length of openings should be less than
half the width of the structure;
 Distance of the opening from the inner corner
should be greater than one sixth length of the height of
the structure;
 There should be a centrally located shutter catch
for every window;
 Every door frame should have at least 6 holdfasts;
each holdfast being at least 9 inches long;
 Every window frame should have at least 4
249
holdfasts; each holdfast being at least 9 inches long.
3.3 Foundations
Foundation of any structure needs to be strong
enough so that it can prevent the structure from
blowing away. Moreover, the foundation helps the
structure in withstanding the surge or flooding which
follow the cyclone.
The ways of protecting foundations are:
 Know-how of the type of soil so that the
foundation is laid at a proper depth;
 Knee bracing to be adopted over full diagonal
bracing as it allows the flow of debris;
 Proper bracing to be done in both the principal
directions of the stilts [6];
 Reinforced connection between reinforced
concrete foundation and wooden column;
 Posts having cross members which are connected
at the lower end should be embedded in the ground
with a depth at least 750 mm;
 Walls should be raised from a well compacted
ground or well compacted lean concrete bed from
depth at least 450 mm from the ground level [6].
3.4 Walls
These are the part of any structure which bears the
ultimate load both from the windward and leeward side.
The whole structure collapses if they fail, therefore
proper care should be taken while constructing them.
The ways of protecting walls are:
 Reinforcing the walls with the help of concrete
bands and vertical reinforcing bars and lateral ties [9];
 For improving the lateral load resistance of long
walls, buttresses should be provided;
 Using Ferro-cement plating around the exterior
perimeter if horizontal bands could not be provided;
 Undesirable openings near the corner to be
closed so as to improve the strength of the cross walls;
 The individual structures like roof and foundation
should be properly braced and anchored with the
walls.
250 Construction of Low Rise Buildings in Cyclone Prone Areas and Modification of Cyclone
Fig. 3 Stilts and earth mounds protect from high winds [11].
3.5 Planning of Settlements
 Row planning should be avoided as it focuses the
maximum wind pressure on the windward side of the
outermost settlement [10];
 Zigzag planning of the trees should be done so
that they can divert the wind pressure;
 Building houses in valleys protects them from
high velocity winds;
 In areas of high velocity winds houses should be
built on stilts or artificial raised earth mounds as
shown in Fig. 3;
 Symmetric design of houses protects them from
unequal application of high intensity pressure.
4. Modification of Cyclone
Modification of a cyclone means either modifying
its path or its intensity. The damage potential of a
cyclone is proportional to the square of intensity of a
cyclone and hence reduction of a cyclone’s intensity
by even a small amount is essential.
The ways for modifying a cyclone which have been
used earlier are mentioned below:
(1) Cloud seeding
Cloud seeding is a common technique to enhance
precipitation. Cloud seeding entails spraying small
particles, such as silver iodide onto clouds in order to
affect their development, usually with the goal of
increasing precipitation. Cloud seeding only works to the
Fig. 4 This image explaining cloud seeding shows the
chemical either silver iodide or dry ice being dumped onto
the cloud, which then becomes a rain shower [12].
extent that there is already water vapor present in the
air. Critics generally contend that claimed successes
occur in conditions which were going to lead to rain
anyway. The most common chemicals used for cloud
seeding include silver iodide, potassium iodide and
dry ice (Solid carbon dioxide). Liquid propane, which
expands into a gas, has also been used. This can
produce ice crystals at higher temperatures than silver
iodide. The use of hygroscopic materials, such as table
salt, is becoming more popular after promising
research. The process of seeding is shown in Fig. 4.
The concept of seeding a cloud during cyclone is
that initially silver iodide—a substance that serves as
an effective ice nucleus is dropped into the rainbands
of the storms. Silver iodide would enhance the
thunderstorms of the rainband by causing the super
cooled water to freeze, thus liberating the latent heat
of fusion and helping the rainband to grow at the
expense of the eyewall. With a weakened convergence
to the eyewall, the strong inner core winds would also
weaken quite a bit. Due to the weak eyewall, further
growth of cyclone intensity could be stopped. This
 Construction of Low Rise Buildings in Cyclone Prone Areas and Modification of Cyclone
would also promote the formation of a new eyewall.
As this new eyewall was larger than the old eyewall,
the winds of the tropical cyclone would be weaker due
to a reduced pressure gradient.
It remained controversial whether the seedings
caused the secondary eyewalls or whether it was just a
natural cycle. Basically, if eyewall changes similar to
those observed in seeded hurricanes were rare in
unseeded tropical cyclones, it would provide powerful
evidence that cloud seeding was successful. But there
were some cyclones in which, the formation of
secondary eyewalls was natural. This phenomenon is
termed as “concentric eyewall cycles”.
(2) Dyn-O-Mat
The Florida Company Dyn-O-Mat proposes the use
of a product it has developed, called Dyn-O-Gel, to
reduce the strength of hurricanes. The substance is a
polymer in powder form (a polyacrylic acid derivative)
which reportedly has the ability to absorb 1,500 times
its own weight in water. The theory is that the
polymer is dropped into clouds to remove their
moisture and force the storm to use more energy to
move the heavier water drops, thus helping to
dissipate the storm. When the gel reaches the ocean
surface, it is reportedly dissolved. The company has
tested the substance on a thunderstorm, but there has
not been any scientific consensus established as to its
effectiveness. Numerical simulations performed by
NOAA showed however that it would not be a
practical solution for large systems like a tropical
cyclone [13].
Fig. 5 Cyclone path modification by dropping soot above
the clouds.
251
Modification of cyclone path can be done by
dropping soot on a specific part of the cloud from
above. As the soot is warmed by the sun, the cool air
at the very top of cyclone warms up. This process
reduces the flow of air within the cyclone and slows it
down. Also depending upon the location where soot is
dropped, the weakened cyclone may change its course
[14]. This process is shown in Fig. 5.
Other ways of reducing the intensity of cyclone and
even prevent it from formation are under study. Some
of them are [15]:
 Pouring liquid nitrogen onto the sea to deprive
the hurricane of heat energy;
 Weaken hurricanes with a surface film on the
ocean that will minimize the evaporation that feeds the
monsters.
5. Conclusions
A destructive cyclone leads to huge storm surge and
high speed wind gusts. Under these actions buildings
designed incorrectly will not perform well and
surrenders. The paper summarizes the construction
technique and design principles for building elements
like roofs, doors and windows, foundation and walls to
minimize the structural damage.
Each of these has been specifically addressed in this
paper with recommendations for improvement. The
ways of protecting these elements are specified in each
sub-section. The figures shown clearly depict various
construction technique illustrated above. The paper has
also highlighted the planning of settlement as an
important parameter. The paper also gives a brief
introduction to the various modification techniques
such as cloud seeding to reduce the intensity of
cyclones. A brief introduction to modification of
cyclone’s path is also addressed in this paper. Some
critique is provided on the existing design provision.
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