Research

If scientists and engineers can systematically measure the wind speeds within the first few tens or hundreds of feet from the ground as well as the loading effects of these winds on buildings and other structures during an extreme wind event such as a hurricane or a tornado, they will be better equipped to design these structures to resist those loads. The outcome will be significantly reduced personal injury and property damage. Partha Sarkar, director of Iowa State’s Wind Simulation and Testing Laboratory and the T. A. and Grace Miller Wilson Endowed Chair in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, and his research team are using field instrumentation such as specially designed pressure probes and anemometers and laboratory tools like particle image velocimetry and multi-hole omniprobes to measure wind speeds. Using models of common gable-roofed buildings, urban skyscrapers and rural farmsteads, employing either the tornado/microburst simulator or the wind tunnels in the lab, and using various computational tools and algorithms, Sarkar, Fred Haan, Hui Hu, and Vinay Dayal from the Department of Aerospace Engineering, in collaboration with Gene Takle and Bill Gallus from the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, are studying this problem and exploring ways to mitigate wind-induced damages. Sarkar leads a research project supported by a $1-million grant from the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration to combine the lab research with student storm-chaser data collected in the field—knowledge critical for saving lives and limiting property damage.