The capabilities of the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) Research Center full-scale test chamber are described in detail. This research facility allows complete full-scale structures to be tested. Testing at full-scale allows vulnerabilities of structures to be evaluated with fewer assumptions than was previously possible. Testing buildings under realistic elevated wind spe...

Abstract Wind turbine interaction in wind farms can lead to energy loss and increased loads, with the magnitude of these effects strongly depending on atmospheric conditions. One-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) models are able represent boundary layer (ABL) over a range model fidelity, be used for steady-state inflow profiles three-dimensional RANS simulations farms. In prese...

Aerodynamic testing of low-rise structures is fraught with difficulties that can be the cause of large measurement errors, resulting in the underestimation of aerodynamic pressures by a factor of as much as two. The errors are primarily attributable to the inadequate knowledge and simulation of wind flows affecting low-rise buildings, especially residential homes in suburban environments. A typ...

[1] This paper uses the results from two multiseason numerical model simulations of Lake Michigan hydrodynamics to examine the relative effects of wind stress curl, topography, and stratification on large-scale circulation. The multiseason simulations provide a period long enough to encompass the full range of atmospheric and thermal conditions that can occur in the lake. The purpose of this pa...

The trends in wind speed at a typical wind turbine hub height (80 m) are analyzed using the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) dataset for 1979–2009. A method, assuming the wind profile in the lower boundary layer as power-law functions of altitude, is developed to invert the power exponent (in the power-law equation) from theNARRdata and to compute the following variables at 80 m that a...

The 3-D structure of the solar wind varies dramatically along the Sun’s activity cycle. In the present paper we focus on some properties of the polar solar wind. This is a fast, teneous, and steady flow (as compared to low-latitude conditions) that fills the high-latitude heliosphere at low solar activity. The polar wind has been extensively investigated by Ulysses, the first spacecraft to perf...

An experimental study was performed to examine the wake characteristics and aeromechanic performance of an innovative twin-rotor wind turbine (TRWT) in comparison with those of a conventional single-rotor wind turbine (SRWT). The comparative study was conducted in a large-scale Aerodynamic/Atmospheric Boundary Layer (AABL) wind tunnel with the TRWT and SRWT model sited in simulated atmospheric ...

It has recently been proposed that microrefugia played an important role in species survival during past climate change events. However, the current distributions of microrefugia remain largely unknown. Wind-hole sites are areas affected by preferential flows of cool air generated in interstitial spaces created by rock fragments or colluvia. Alpine plant species occurring in lowland wind-hole s...