An experimental study was conducted to quantify the characteristics of a tornado-like vortex and to reveal the dynamics of the flow-structure interactions between a low-rise, gable-roof building model and swirling, turbulent tornado-like winds. The experimental work was conducted by using a large-scale tornado simulator located in the Aerospace Engineering Department of Iowa State University. I...

Our understanding of how variable wind in natural environments affects flying insects is limited because most studies of insect flight are conducted in either smooth flow or still air conditions. Here, we investigate the effects of structured, unsteady flow (the von Karman vortex street behind a cylinder) on the flight performance of bumblebees (Bombus impatiens). Bumblebees are 'all-weather' f...

In highly urbanized and energy intensive countries like Singapore all possible avenues for power generation need attention. In this context, rooftop installations of both solar and wind energy are of particular interest for Singapore, especially because of Singapore's condition of land limitation. Decentralized and distributed energy sources such as rooftop wind and solar installations have num...

Aerodynamic, load, flow-visualization, and inflow measurements have been made on a 10-m, three-bladed, downwind, horizontal-axis wind turbine ( HAWT). A video camera mounted on the rotor was used to record night­ time and daytime video images of tufts attached to the low-pressure side of a constant-chord, zero-twist blade. Load measurements were made using strain gages mounted at every 10% of t...

Viscous effect of wing in ground effect in wind tunnel test was investigated numerically. Ground settings in wind tunnel test were simulated by specifying different ground boundary conditions in CFD. It was revealed for fixed-ground based wind tunnel test that: boundary layer developed from the ground deforms effective ground surface and introduces a decreased effective ground clearance; a shar...

the baroclinic adjustment is defined as the neutralization of the mean flow by eddies. with the amplitude growth of the baroclinic waves generated by an unstable mean flow, the eddy fluxes increase and act to reduce the meridional temperature gradient or vertical wind shear of the mean flow to subcritical value. this is believed to constitute the basic mechanism of baroclinic adjustment. the co...

Vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) are an alternative to horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT) for wind and tidal energy harvesting applications. Studies of vertical axis wind turbines have heavily invested in understanding the behaviour of the complete turbine, but often with only cursory assessment of the contributions of unsteady aerodynamics of individual blades. This paper experimentally ex...

Deregulation is the major trend in the electric power industry throughout the world. The main focus in deregulated system operation is to optimize the system welfare by introducing competition, mainly, among generators. The grid operator is required to know how the power offered by the generators is reaching the load; for which the power flow is to be traced along the lines. Tracing of electric...

Flow Caml is an extension of the Objective Caml language with a type system tracing information flow. It automatically checks information flow within Flow Caml programs, then translates them to regular Objective Caml code that can be compiled by the ordinary compiler to produce secure programs. In this paper, we give a short overview of this system, from a practical viewpoint.