Wind Engineering

Built upon 50 years of research and education endeavors, the Wind Engineering Pillar of the National Wind Institute (NWI) seeks to advance the understanding of wind, its interaction with the built environment, and the impact of this interaction on society. With an ultimate goal to help enhance the resilience and sustainability of society, our mission is to create knowledge that can be used both to reduce the detrimental effects of wind, such as the life and property losses caused by windstorms, and to improve the efficiency and reliability of wind energy harvesting. To realize this mission, we perform analytical, numerical and experimental studies to tackle the critical problems posed by wind. These studies are supported by unique research facilities administered by NWI.

Specialties

• Wind Field Characterization and Simulation
• Bluff-Body Aerodynamics
• Wind-Induced Vibration
• Fatigue and Extreme Loading Effects
• Performance-Based Engineering
• Machine Learning
• Data Science
• Numerical Simulation
• Multi-Hazard Resilience
• Social, Economic and Health Impacts
• Wind Turbine Loading and Performance

Facilities

• VorTECH Tornado Simulator
• Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel
• Wind Engineering Research Field Laboratory
• 200 m Instrumented Tower

Example Projects

• Tornadic Loading on Low-Rise Buildings
• NSF Industry University Cooperative Research Center: Wind Hazard Infrastructure Performance
• Large-scale Data Analysis for Wind Speed and Hazard Resilience