While hurricane season often brings worries of the structural soundness of Gulf Coast buildings, a University professor is researching ways to increase resistance and reduce damage from wind-borne debris.Michele Barbato, assistant civil and environmental engineering professor, is researching methods for a holistic approach to modern building designs that will better resist damage.Barbato said the idea is to approach the design of a building as a whole, finding out which building materials better stand up to a given impact intensity. The stress points of a building, such as the windows, doors and roofs are the most prone to damage.”We work with structural components, such as windows, doors, door covers, things like that,” Barbato said. “The idea is to measure the strength and resistance of given components. For example, we want to know, given a specific strength of winds, how thick of windows we would need.”He said after there is a measure of a specific material’s reliability, the next step is to develop a design, putting together the materials that will produce the greatest resistance for given conditions.Barbato is also working with Marc Levitan, director of civil and environmental engineering, as an adviser for a group of mechanical and electrical engineering seniors working on their final project.”The purpose of the project is to plan, design and use an air compression cannon, firing missiles such as 2-by-4 boards, rocks and any other random debris to measure the reliability of different building components,” said Gisela Barany, mechanical engineering senior.After the materials are tested with the cannon, they are brought to the pressure chamber, a tool simulating the pressure of hurricane wind gusts, said Luis Lopez, mechanical design senior and team leader.”The point is to find the specific velocity which certain object can resist,” Barbato said.He said data collected by students from his department and researchers from the LSU Hurricane Center during Hurricane Ike will weigh into his database. He said he expects to have the results in a few weeks.”It is difficult to tell at this point in time the percentage by which it will decrease damage,” Barbato said. “Once we have an actual method, we will be able to define the amount of damage it can sustain.”The level of damage depends on the specific hurricane category, but Barbato said he hopes to eliminate damage from Category 3 hurricanes.Levitan said the damage from a hurricane isn’t broken down into specific categories, so it’s hard to tell which percent of the damage is caused by wind-borne debris. After Hurricane Katrina, a new building code was put into Louisiana law. The code varies with differing parts of the state, but Levitan said on average a building should be able to withstand a 9-pound, 2-by-4 inch piece of wood traveling at 30 mph. “If specific problems were to be found from recent hurricanes, a new building standard may be proposed,” Levitan said. “But it normally takes years after the storm before new codes are put in place.”Barbato said it will require at least a full year of research to have a complete performance-based design method. From there, he said the research will be applied to other aspects of hurricane engineering, as well as collaborating with private producers interested in using the design method.”The private sector will benefit immediately,” Barbato said. “They will have an efficient way to design for a given hurricane category.”He said there is no way to tell exactly how long it will take to incorporate the design into new construction once it is completed, but he said it’s a very lengthy process that could take years.—-Contact Steven Powell at [email protected]