HAIL IMPACT ON BUILDING ENVELOPES

Hailstorms are capable of inflicting a large amount of damage on build ing roofs and facades. This research focuses on the prediction of hail damage so that measures can be taken to reduce this damage. Hail char acteristics (size, recurrence intervals, etc.) and hailstone impacts o n building facades are investigated. The vertical and horizontal compo nents of velocity of a hailstone are treated separately. Measurements and predictions of the vertical velocity are presented. Horizontal vel ocities of hailstones in gusty winds beneath thunderstorms are estimat ed using a step by step approach. A brief description of the experimen tal apparatus used in simulating hail impact on building materials is given. Finally, a method to predict the damage to buildings, using the theory of plate dynamics, is outlined.