Lichtenstein Distinguished Lecture - Dr. Kishor C. Mehta
Wind Loads: A Contrast between Bridges and Low Buildings
Wind is a natural environment that affects all buildings and structures. Design basis wind loads depend on three separate but interrelated items; 1. Wind climate, 2. Micro-climate surrounding the building or structure, and 3. Wind-structure interaction. Wind climate relates to type of windstorms and site location; example being hurricane prone area. Wind micro-climate relates to parameters such as surrounding terrain, topography and height above ground. Wind-structure interaction involves gust response, structural vibration, vortex shedding, flow separation and other phenomenon. Wind-structure interaction depends on characteristics of wind as well as characteristics of structure. Long-span bridges and low buildings are two types of structures which are at two extreme wind- structure interaction phenomena. Long span bridges are slender structures susceptible to vibrations in steady winds while low buildings are susceptible to high pressures in extreme winds. The presentation will discuss governing criteria for design wind loads for these two types of structures. Discussion will be illustrated with damaged structures.
Speaker: Dr. Kishor C. Mehta, P.W.Horn Professor of Civil Engineering, Texas Tech University
Dr. Mehta received his B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from University of Michigan in 1957 and 1958 and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from University of Texas, Austin, in 1965. He has devoted the last thirty seven years of his professional career to teaching and conducting research on problems relating to wind loads. He is recognized nationally and internationally as an authority in the field of wind loads on structures and wind engineering. As chairman of the task committee on wind loads, he played a major role in the development of the wind load provisions of ANSI A58.1-1982, ASCE 7- 88, and ASCE 7-95. He has more than 150 publications to his credit. He is the recipient of the Halliburton Education Foundation Award of Excellence and Texas Tech University President’s Award for Research and Teaching. Currently, he is leading an effort in developing B.Sc. in Wind Energy. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004. He is also a Distinguished Member of ASCE.
Host: Hojjat Adeli (phone: 614-292-7929)