THE ABILITY OF WALL OPENINGS TO REDUCE FLOOD INDUCED FORCES ON RESIDENTIAL BUILDING
Keywords:
Flood, Residential Building, Wall Opening, Water VelocityAbstract
Flood induced forces could threaten the stability of residential building during flooding event.
The building will have to face the hydrodynamic pressures and sometime impact load from the debris
carrying floods. A study on the behavior of flood water movement through external wall were carried out to
identify the various wall opening dimensions and its ability to minimize the flood water forces on buildings.
Two types of experiments were carried out. First, a water flow table was used to visualize the water pattern
diffusion. Next, flood tunnel was used to measure water velocity reduction response of the various walls. The
wall opening configurations were based on the common types of wall opening found in Malaysia. Generally,
the results show that walls with bigger openings could withstand the water forces better. This is indicated by
the smaller velocity reduction and diffusion when the flowing water passes through the wall. However, the
level of opening from the ground could change the overall performance of the various opening sizes as
shown by some of the models. Therefore, further studies should be carried out to determine suitable
dimensional characteristics and level of the wall openings from the ground. This could produce an optimum
impact reduction wall design for residential building in flood prone area.