Abstract
Storm damage complaints and large insurance payouts in the Southwestern and Midwestern US have generated a renewed interest in hail as a destructive force to roofing. There is an inventory of hail damage information resulting from field investigations and many insurance claims. However, information about the assessment and classification of damage to roofs by falling hailstones is lacking. Part I of this paper suggests procedures for on the roof assessment of hail damage. It assigns damage susceptibility factors for eight generic roof systems with respect to damage types. Part II proposes a classification system for rating the resistance of roofing products to hailstones. Hail testing has been carried out in labs using simulated hailstones to impact roofing products for many years. The results have been reported in the technical literature. Using these results, kinetic energy is proposed as the criterion for quantifying hail resistance of roofing products. This allows for making reasonable comparisons between the results of the many different test methods used to measure the hail resistance. Such a system can be useful to standard developers, insurance companies, contractors, manufacturers, owners, regulators, researchers and other interested parties.
Storm damage complaints and large insurance payouts in the Southwestern and Midwestern US have generated a renewed interest in hail as a destructive force to roofing. There is an inventory of hail damage information resulting from field investigations and many insurance claims. However, information about the assessment and classification of damage to roofs by falling hailstones is lacking. Part I of this paper suggests procedures for on the roof assessment of hail damage. It assigns damage susceptibility factors for eight generic roof systems with respect to damage types. Part II proposes a classification system for rating the resistance of roofing products to hailstones. Hail testing has been carried out in labs using simulated hailstones to impact roofing products for many years. The results have been reported in the technical literature. Using these results, kinetic energy is proposed as the criterion for quantifying hail resistance of roofing products. This allows for making reasonable comparisons between the results of the many different test methods used to measure the hail resistance. Such a system can be useful to standard developers, insurance companies, contractors, manufacturers, owners, regulators, researchers and other interested parties.
Date
9/1997
9/1997
Author(s)
William Cullen
William Cullen
Page(s)
211-216
211-216
Keyword(s)
assessment; classification; criteria; hail damage; kinetic energy; resistance; test method
assessment; classification; criteria; hail damage; kinetic energy; resistance; test method