The University of Western Ontario is home to some of the most advanced wind research facilities in the world.Western Engineering’s newest facility, the Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment Dome (WindEEE Dome) will be the world’s first large, hexagonal wind dome - a solution to previous limitations in wind tunnel design and research.
Led by engineering professor Horia Hangan, the WindEEE Dome will physically simulate high-intensity wind systems, including tornadoes, downbursts and gust fronts that cannot be created in any of the world’s existing wind tunnels.It will also help researchers understand how to harness the power of wind as a clean, sustainable new energy source.
“WindEEE will allow us to create straight wind flows resembling wind tunnel-type configurations, and axisymmetric flows, such as jets, downbursts and tornadoes,” says Hangan.“Because the fans can operate individually, WindEEE will also allow us to mimic flows produced by wind turbine blades by creating a non-uniform horizontal or vertical flow.The fans can also be reversed, blowing outside the facility, to traverse wind turbine blades or to test larger objects, such as solar panels.”
The $23.6-million facility, funded in part through the Canada Foundation for Innovation ($9.5 million) and the Ontario Research Fund ($9.5 million), will be located in London, Ontario’s Advanced Manufacturing Park and is expected to be operational in the summer of 2012. In the meantime, for testing purposes, Hangan and his team have built a “mini-dome”, which at one tonne and four metres in diameter is about one-tenth full-scale size.
Media is invited to watch and film some of the first tests in the “mini-dome” on Tuesday, March 1. Time slots can be booked by contacting Keith Marnoch at 519-661-2111 ext. 85468 or kmarnoch@uwo.ca.
The full-scale WindEEE Dome will be 40 metres across and will contain 106 fans, each one approximately metre in diameter.The concept was developed numerically, so Hangan needs to turn the numbers into a physical reality to prove the equations work.
“These mini-dome tests will confirm that the type of flows we said will generate are there,” says Hangan.“They will benchmark what we have numerically simulated and help us ensure the installation works the way it was designed to.They will also help us understand how to best control the fans to create different wind flows.”
MORE ABOUT WINDEE DOME RESEARCH
- Until now, most wind engineering research has focused on typhoons and hurricanes.However, 67 per cent of damages that occur to inner North American properties are due to local storms, which can manifest as downbursts, tornadoes, low-level currents or gust fronts.
- Total loss due to these storms is approximately $6 billion each year.These devastating storms are the type of wind profiles WindEEE will make possible.
- Data from WindEEE is expected to change the design and construction of buildings, bridges and power lines, which has remained virtually unchanged for the better part of a century.
- WindEEE will also play an essential role in helping industry optimize wind farm and turbine design and capitalize on the opportunity to harness the power of wind for clean energy.
WIND RESEARCH AT WESTERN
The WindEEE Dome builds on nearly 50 years of wind engineering excellence at Western, which began with Alan Davenport and the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory . One of Western’s strategic research areas, wind engineering has expanded to include not only WindEEE, but also the Insurance Research Lab for Better Homes, home to the Three Little Pigs project. Western has also developed another international first with the Advanced Facility for Avian Research .
Media contact:
Keith Marnoch
Communications & Public Affairs
519-661-2111 ext. 85468 (office)
226-927-3471 (cell)
kmarnoch@uwo.ca
