WindEEE Dome will fill critical void in wind engineering research

Local storms account for more than 60% of wind damage and Cdn$200 million annual losses each year, said Horia Hangan, a professor at the University of Western Ontario and the lead investigator of the WindEEE Dome.
Hangan delivered a seminar on the development of the WindEEE Dome and the advancement of wind engineering on Nov. 13, at the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction office in Toronto.
He noted that 67% of damages to intercontinental North American properties are due to local storms, which can manifest as downbursts, tornados, low-level currents, or gust fronts.
Up until recently, the majority, if not all, of wind engineering focused on wind associated with typhoons and hurricanes, he said.
With down bursts, the maximum intensity of wind occurs below 30 metres, putting homes, low-rise buildings, transmission towers and wind farms at risk, he explained.
The dome will be the world’s first hexagonal wind tunnel. With a series of fans on all of the periphery walls and on the roof, it will be able to simulate up to an F3 tornado, downbursts, and a variety of other wind profiles. With the use of the fans, researchers will be able to shear the current of wind and change its direction during a simulation.
Researchers will also be able to simulate complex terrains, so as not to “de-couple these two factors,” Hangan said.
The facility will be able to test the vulnerabilities of structures, power lines, agricultural crops, forests and wind turbines.
“The [WindEEE Dome] will be designed with the provision that it will continue to evolve,” he said, adding that future phases will allow researchers to add the effect of moisture, water and rain and the addition of particulates, dust and snow into the models.