Wall of Wind (WOW) Facility

The NHERI Wall of Wind (WOW) Experimental Facility was funded by NSF to be a national facility that enables researchers to better understand wind effects on civil infrastructure systems and to prevent wind hazards from becoming community disasters. WOW is powered by a combined 12-fan system capable of repeatable testing in up to 157 mph wind speeds through its flow management system.

equipment in facility

  • 16,000 sqft. fenced-off secure area for wind testing. WOW apparatus (with 14 ft. high x 20 ft. wide test section), rain generation system, flow conditioning spires and roughness for atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) simulation, two Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) to control 12 WOW fans, 16 ft. diameter turntable, data acquisition (DAQ) system, video capture and surveillance system (all housed in a 8,000 sqft. WOW building). 3,000 sqft. pre-test specimen staging/construction/instrumentation (SCI) building with a fabrication shop and a small-scale boundary layer wind tunnel?. 1,344 sqft. air conditioned Operations and Control Center (OCC) for controlling, monitoring, viewing the tests, and providing telepresence. 1:15 small-scale WOW. Downburst Simulator.

services

  • 1 day of WoW Research Facility time 1 day of personnel time dedicated to supplemental pre-testing setup 1 day of personnel time dedicated to supplemental post-testing setup

webpage

acronym

  • WOW

contact information

  • "Dr. Arindam Chowdhury, Professor Engineering Center 10555 West Flagler Street Miami, Florida 33174 Phone: 305-348-0518 Email: chowdhur@fiu.edu Ioannis Zisis, Associate Professor Phone: 305-348-4869 Email: izisis@fiu.edu"

manager

recharge center

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