Don't Be Blown Away: The Effect of Wind Pressure on Different Building Shapes

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective is to determine which building shape is least affected by wind Methods/Materials Three buildings were built with K#nex containing the same volume but with different shapes (triangular, square, and circular) and covered with paper. Using a blow dryer as a wind source, wind pressure measurements were taken at 10 cm intervals beginning at 100 cm and ending at 0 cm. The pressure was measured with a 100 sq cm sail pressing against an electronic scale. Each building was then tested at the same 10 cm intervals measured before. If the building fell over from the wind force, the distance from the blow dryer was noted. If the building didn#t fall over, the distance of zero was recorded. The square and triangular shaped buildings were tested on both a flat side and an edge. Results The triangular building never fell in any test. The square building fell when the blow dryer was at 20 cm while blowing against an edge and at 40 cm when blowing against a flat side. The circular building fell 20 cm from the blow dryer. Conclusions/Discussion The triangular building can stand up to the most wind pressure. Perhaps people in hurricane-prone areas, such as Florida, should build triangular buildings.

Competition history

• CSEF 2005 Structural Capability & Strength of Materials (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1815

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Materials Science and Engineering projects
• CSEF Materials Science and Engineering projects
• Every CSEF 2005 project