Initial investigation into protection of light-frame home parks from hurricanes using wind-deflection barriers

Parks containing manufactured homes and trailers exist in the hurricane-prone areas of the southern United States. Homes in these parks may suffer heavy damage from high-speed winds. This paper's objective is to present a methodology and to provide suggestions to the engineering community and protection agencies such as FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) about a method to lessen damage to groups of manufactured homes. To support the development of this methodology with analysis, an unsteady, Reynolds-averaged, Navier-Stokes computational tool was employed to model a manufactured-home park to evaluate how well a wind barrier installed along its upwind periphery could establish skimming flow over all the buildings in the park. A manufactured-home park that had existed in Punta Gorda, Florida, was studied because satellite pictures before and after it was heavily damaged by Hurricane Charley on August 13, 2004, were available. Computations were performed using a computer program and the k-ω shear-stress transport model with enhanced wall treatment to capture most of the flow features near the barrier and building walls. A 3.05-m high barrier slanted downwind at 45° to the horizontal was placed along the southern and western sides of the park at spacing-to-building height (b/h) ratios of 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0. Comparisons with the no-barrier case were made using the pressure coefficient and wind speed. Both were considerably reduced throughout the park by the barrier. Pertinent concluding remarks and suggestions to the engineering community are presented.