The need for advancing technology to aid with pre-fabricated, pre-engineered steel buildings in becoming more resistant to storms, including severe wind, is never more in evidence than when footage or a photograph of powerful hurricane damage is seen. The destructive and sometimes devastating power of high wind has been illustrated by recent strong hurricanes through the southern states, most prominently Hurricane Katrina (2005).

Bolstering of fundamental building sections will help any all-steel structure system to increase wind resistance. Research is evolving and brings forth enhanced structural code alterations as new findings in wind loading are determined. There must be a design wind speed, expressed in mph, for each sector of the continental United States. The measurement for this velocity of the wind at any given location is that gauged during a limited “three second wind gust,” which echoes the weather service principles. An accepted calculation needs to be applied to convert the wind measurement into an acceptable pounds-per-square-foot velocity pressure. A computation that uses the given tallness and exposure determinants of any steel structure to the fixed ground surface readings is then used to achieve the necessary design wind pressure determinants for any structure.

Damage from high wind construction analysis shows that the failure of walls and roofs in a building will repeatedly occur at the roof’s edge and outside corners. Further engineering attention, therefore, needs to be addressed to these segments of the planned pre-engineered steel building so that wind problems are not a factor. A “salient corner” procedure is employed to afford more strengthening and engineering investigation to all four corners of any steel building system calling for high wind loading.

There are four ways in which high winds can damage a structure. The action of shifting results in the pre-engineered steel building actually staying together as a whole element but skidding off of its base as an aftereffect of severe wind disconnecting the building from its foundation. The most devastating of these failure examples is total collapse. This is the failure of the pre-engineered steel structure due to extreme wind forces that induce the metal building to totally fall in upon itself, not unlike a house of cards. Any high wind episode can cause only a part of the steel structure to fall or break down, resulting in damage to components. Sectors of the wall ripped out, building doors being blown inward, and roof collapse are all examples of what can transpire.

Inverting of the building can also occur as a result of high wind damage. Defective structural mass and faulty linkage to the building pad can cause a high wind episode that will turn over the structure completely. For many years it was thought that when calculating effect on a building, that extreme wind forces should only be considered as a lateral expression. However, calibrations of suction and compression together with upright wind quantification are now incorporated in pre-engineered steel structure market models. Correct wind loading designs for building systems continue to change overall and differ in various locations as technology advances and research techniques evolve.