The University of Western Ontario will build the WindEEE Dome, the world's first hexagonal wind tunnel in London's newly established Advanced Manufacturing Park.
The WindEEE (Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment) Dome, which will be the first project built in the park, has the capability of physically simulating high intensity wind systems, including tornados, downbursts and gust fronts that cannot be created in any existing wind tunnels.
The announcement of the site for WindEEE and the groundbreaking ceremony took place this morning at London's Advanced Manufacturing Park, a joint venture between Western, Fanshawe College and the City of London. The park is on land dedicated by the City of London in Phase IV of Innovation Park on Bradley Avenue, just east of Veterans Memorial Parkway. The City of London has provided 25 acres to Western, plus 3.2 acres that will have joint access.
Construction of the facility will begin late this fall and the WindEEE Dome is expected to be operational by June 2012.
The estimated $23.6 million cost of the WindEEE Dome is being partly funded through The Canada Foundation for Innovation ($9.5 million) and The Ontario Research Fund ($9.5 million).
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is an independent corporation created by the Government of Canada to fund research infrastructure and strengthen the capacity of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and non-profit research institutions to carry out world-class research and technology development that benefits Canadians.
The Ontario Research Fund (ORF) is a key part of the government's plan to support scientific excellence by supporting research that can be developed into innovative goods and services that will boost Ontario's economy.
"This is great news for Western and for London, and it is the strong partnerships we have that have made it possible to turn ground today to put WindEEE in London's new Advanced Manufacturing Park," said Western's President Amit Chakma. "The facility will be world-class and will be a draw for others looking for close proximity to cutting-edge research and innovation."
Special guests joining Chakma at the ground-breaking ceremony included London Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best, Ed Holder, Member of Parliament for London West, Chris Bentley, MPP for London West and Attorney General of Ontario, Dr. Eliot Phillipson, President and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and Horia Hangan, WindEEE Dome Principal Investigator. Hangan is a professor in Western's Faculty of Engineering.
Hangan's research focuses on wind tunnel simulations to study wakes, boundary layers, jets and tornado-like vortices. His work will further our understanding of wind flow, wind energy, pollution dispersion, and how winds affect structures such as buildings and bridges.
"While we have been working for a very long time to get to today's announcement, in reality, today is just a wonderful beginning," says Hangan. "We know the wind can be a creator and a destroyer. We anticipate that researchers and industrial partners across the country and internationally, will find a home in WindEEE and that together, we will find new ways to enhance the wind's creative energy and ways to dissipate its destructive nature."
The six-sided structure will be 40 metres across, and will contain a matrix of more than 100 fans, each about one metre in diameter. Together, they can create winds of up to 100 kilometres per hour.
For many years, Western has been internationally respected as a leader in wind research. That reputation, built over many years includes:
The Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory (BLWTL) is a cutting-edge facility for wind tunnel testing and analysis. BLWTL has contributed to most of the world's major advances in wind engineering since it was established in 1964.
The Insurance Research Lab for Better Homes is home to the "Three Little Pigs" project, where a full-scale home is exposed to simulated winds up to a category five hurricane. The goal - safer and increasingly cost-effective homes.
The Advanced Facilities for Avian Research (AFAR) is a specialized research centre home to the world's first hypobaric bird wind tunnel that allows the study of bird behaviour, physiology and neurobiology.
Western has an interdisciplinary team of more than 20 researchers from several faculties working on wind engineering and wind-related research, and is the only institution in Canada currently offering a graduate program in wind engineering. In addition, Western is home to the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) - a world-class centre for multi-disciplinary disaster prevention research and communications.
In addition to the WindEEE Dome, Western is pursuing a second project for the Advanced Manufacturing Park. Western is seeking funding for a partnership with the Fraunhofer Institute of Chemical Technology in Germany to establish The International Composites Research Centre and to bring a large-scale press for testing and manufacturing lightweight composite parts for the auto sector and other London industries.
Western now has three research parks. In addition to the new Advanced Manufacturing Park, The University of Western Ontario Research and Development Park has its original 50-acre park adjacent to Western's campus, and an 80-acre Sarnia-Lambton Campus.
Three short animation videos are available for download. These animations were used in the conceptual engineering design process to simulate the capabilities of WindEEE.
WindEEE_one.wmv - Downburst - formation and dynamics of ring-vortices http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Aerp0DhsRQ
WindEEE_two.wmv - Tornado Core - Velocity field http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgW7Te18Yls
WindEEE_three.wmv- Tornado Visualization - Streamlines coloured by velocity magnitude
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRYlbxjBv2U
Contact: Ann Hutchison, Director, Media Relations - 519-661-2111 x85468, ahutch2@uwo.ca
