SimCenter Series: NATURAL HAZARDS ENGINEERING 101 (NHE 101)
ABSTRACT -- Wind-induced effects on buildings and infrastructure located in coastal areas of USA and around the globe have caused damages worth billions of dollars. To develop wind damage mitigation techniques and carry out research on various topics of wind engineering, a state-of-the-art large scale experimental facility -- the Wall of Wind (WOW) -- was developed at Florida International University (FIU), Miami, USA. The WOW has been designated as an “Experimental Facility” (EF) under the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) program of National Science Foundation (NSF).
The WOW EF includes a 12-fan boundary layer wind tunnel that can generate wind speeds of 157 mph (70 m/s) equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. This facility has been used for various applications that include: assessing wind loads on buildings, bridges and traffic signals; simulating wind-driven rain (WDR) intrusion in buildings; and assessing the capability of a building or its components to withstand high wind speeds. The objective of the WOW EF as part of the NHERI program is to enable an external, broadly inclusive, user base to undertake fundamental research in aerodynamics, fluid mechanics, wind-induced vibrations, aeroelastic instabilities, stochastic processes, fragility of building systems, rain infiltration mechanisms, wind simulation methodology and non-linear structural behaviour under wind loading.
The WOW EF can be a very useful test bed for developing and validating Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and other numerical simulation methods, thereby reducing the future reliance on physical testing, and for developing mitigation methods. This webinar describes the capabilities, uniqueness, and resources at the WOW EF. Case studies will be presented pertaining to the estimation of wind loads on various buildings and infrastructure systems. The development and validation of a new Partial Turbulence Simulation (PTS) technique for testing large-scale models will be discussed.
- SimCenter | Exploring Wind Engineering, May 17, 2017 ( Download)
- SimCenter | Introduction to Wind Engineering, April 26, 2017 ( Download)
- SimCenter | Computational Fluid Dynamics, Simulation & Computational Tools, June 12, 2017 ( Download)
- Wind Engineering Solutions ( Download)
- SimCenter | WE-UQ Tool Training - Day 3, July 10, 2020 ( Download)
- Florida International University | 2017 NSF NHERI WOW EF User Workshop - KEYNOTE 1: Ahsan Kareem ( Download)
- SimCenter | Early Career Researcher Forum, November 1, 2017 ( Download)
- SimCenter | WE-UQ Tool Training - Day 1, July 8, 2020 ( Download)
- SimCenter | WE-UQ Tool Training - Day 2, July 9, 2020 ( Download)
- SimCenter | Partial Turbulence Simulation for Predicting Peak Wind Loads on Buildings, Oct. 16, 2020 ( Download)
- Power Panel FIU - Wall Of Wind ( Download)
- SimCenter | EE-UQ Tool Training - Day 1, June 17, 2020 ( Download)
- Florida International University | 2017 NSF NHERI WOW EF User Workshop - KEYNOTE 2: Peter Irwin ( Download)
- NHERI WOW EF INFO ( Download)
- 2020 Joint NSF NHERI Wall of Wind & SimCenter Users Workshop | Session 1.5 ( Download)
