TARGET AREA

The focus is to analyze a light wood frame home in a hurricane prone region in the United States. The choosen region is the gulf Coast region and the Atlantic Coast region. Two main force system are looked at; Wind Pressure and Water Pressure. I analyze the main lateral resistance system's ability to resist these two forces. The main lateral resistance system in a home is the floor diaphragm and shear walls.

The first Case analyzes the forces on a house when it is located far from the coast and where surge would not impact it. The second Case analyzes the forces on a house that is located right on the coast and would be hit with the full height of the storm surge.

The max force will occur when the wind or water strike the long face (in this case, 66ft) of the house. This will cause the largest shear to occur on the ends. For this reason, only one direction is analyzed.

The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale is used to determine Hurricane Wind Speeds as well as projected Surge Heights.

The House size that was choosen was the average house size as reported by ABC News. The typical American home was roughly 2350 sq ft in 2004. The dimensions for the house was choosen as 66 ft x 36 ft. This gives a house size of 2405 sq ft with a height of 30 ft. The model of the house choosen is shown below.