Capabilities & Facilities
Background The Center has a 39 year history of multidisciplinary research and education in Wind Science and Engineering and maintains a national and international reputation for expertise in wind related research.
Personnel The Center is strongly multidisciplinary with 25 faculty affiliates from 7 academic departments and employs 12 professional staff with offices on the main campus and at the Reese Technology Center.
Graduate Education The Center offers a multidisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Wind Science and Engineering – the only such program in the nation. There are 21 students enrolled in the program.
Facilities and Locations The campus of Texas Tech University hosts the main administrative offices while the Reese Technology Center provides an open and unobstructed environment for field research facilities and indoor laboratory space. ¨ Reese Technology Center The Reese Technology Center is a 2,500 acre research park located 8 miles from the University campus. The WISE Center occupies 56,000 square feet of indoor laboratory space and a large field test site. The Reese location also offers three separate landing strips providing access for both small and large aircraft. ¨ WIND ENGINEERING RESEARCH FIELD LABORATORY (WERFL) Instrumented 30x45x13 ft. building and signal light structures are located at the field site. These structures and other structures with associated data acquisition system permit measurements of wind induced pressures and responses in natural wind.
¨ Integrated Wind-Water Desalination Test facility Five kilowatt wind turbine coupled with 1500 GPD Reverse Osmosis desalination controller development test bed.
¨Wind Tunnel Facilities Located on the main campus, a closed circuit, and boundary layer wind tunnel offers a 1.8 x 1.2 meter test section capable of wind speeds up to 45 m/s. A large scale, multi-fan tornado and vortex simulator and wind tunnel is currently under construction at the Reese Technology Center. Expected operation 2009.
¨ Debris Impact Facility A pneumatic cannon, capable of producing simulated wind speeds over 250 mph, can launch different types of simulated wind-born debris in a controlled environment to provide valuable impact resistance data.
¨ Wind Library The WISE Center preserves one of the largest collections of wind related material in the world. This collection includes Ted Fujita’s papers, and documentation of over 100 wind storm events from throughout the United States.
Meteorological Facilities ¨ 200 Meter Tower A 200 meter, data acquisition tower measures and records atmospheric conditions at ten levels with a variety of instruments, including sonic and u-v-w anemometers.
¨ West Texas Mesonet A network of fifty atmospheric stations located in more than 38 counties in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico provides a network to monitor and record regional mesoscale weather conditions. This web-based system receives over 30,000 hits per day.
¨ Low Level Profiler This vertical atmospheric radar provides a detailed analysis of the lower boundary layer and is linked with the West Texas Mesonet.
¨ SMART-R Mobile Radar Mobile radar are networked with other instrumentation to investigate severe wind characteristics and damage potential. Two Ka-Band, 35 GHz, 8mm, mobile Doppler units are also under construction with expected operation in 2009.
¨ MOBILE INSTRUMENTATION The wind storm and hurricane deployment teams record real-time storm data using two specially designed 10 meter mobile towers, an array of 2 meter towers, and a small fleet of specially instrumented automobiles. ON-GOING PROJECTS ¨ GREAT PLAINS WIND POWER TEST FACILITY
Sponsored By: Department of Energy; Award Amount: $1.96 million The objectives of the project are to continue development of a nationally- recognized facility for the testing, characterization and improvement of grid- connected wind turbines and integrated wind-water desalination systems, and to provide education and outreach on these topics.
¨ ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNITY WIND AS APPLIED TO SCHOOLS IN TEXAS
Sponsored By: Texas State Energy Conservation Office; Award Amount: $50,000 This project involves cooperation between Texas Tech and administrations of Shallowater and Crosbyton schools to provide basic instruction to students and teachers in the operation of wind turbines, the characteristics of the wind resource, the sensors and data acquisition equipment and the economics of wind energy.
¨ HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGERY: A NEW FRONTIER FOR WINDSTORM DAMAGE ASSESSMENT
Sponsored By: National Science Foundation; Award Amount: $68,613 The objective of this project is to investigate the capability and application of hyperspectral imaging technology to provide accurate and quick identification and quantification of building damages. This will improve our understanding of the progression of wind hazards and their effects and provide abundant high quality data needed to calibrate and validate risk models for insurers and public agencies.
¨ SIGN TESTS IN THE FIELD AND IN THE WIND TUNNEL
Sponsored By: International Sign Association; Award Amount: $61,258 The objective of this research is to determine force coefficients for solid signs in the field and in the wind tunnel and to compare them with the values given in ASCE 7-05.
¨ ASSESSING BRIDGE PERFORMANCE TO EXTREME WINDS WITH CONSIDERATION OF NON-GAUSSIAN FEATURES AND SYSTEM UNCERTAINTIES
Sponsored By: National Science Foundation; Award Amount: $149,934 The objective of this project is to develop advanced methods for assessing bridge performance to damaging winds and for achieving reliability-based risk-consistent designs of long span bridges. The research will result in refined wind force models, which not only reduce the complexity of current linear force model, but also adequately describe the nonlinear unsteady force characteristics.
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Texas Tech University, Wind Science and Engineering Research Center, 10th and Akron, Lubbock, TX 79409
806.742.3476