A model of wind-borne debris damage

The paper presents a model for describing the damage that might be done to buildings by wind-borne debris in a sustained high-speed wind such as a typhoon or hurricane, as distinct from the damage inflicted by the direct wind pressure itself. The work, carried out under the auspices of the UN International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction programme, was concerned with the effects of high typhoon wind speeds in urban areas in the Pacific Rim region of South East Asia (J.A. Wills, T.A. Wyatt, B.E. Lee, Warnings of high winds in densely populated areas. IDNDR Flagship Programme Report 4, Thos. Telford, London, 1998).