The National Wind Institute (NWI) at

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sy ...

(TTU) was established in December 2012, and is intended to serve as Texas Tech University's intellectual hub for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, commercialization and education related to

wind Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few ho ...

science, wind energy,

wind engineering Wind engineering is a subset of mechanical engineering, structural engineering, meteorology, and applied physics that analyzes the effects of wind in the natural and the built environment and studies the possible damage, inconvenience or benefits ...

and wind hazard mitigation and serves faculty affiliates, students, and external partners. In 2003, with support from the National Science Foundation, the first interdisciplinary Ph.D. program dedicated to wind science and engineering was developed. Later, the Texas Wind Energy Institute (TWEI) was established, and is a partnership between TTU and Texas State Technical College designed to develop education and career pathways to meet workforce and educational needs of the expanding wind energy industry. Partly funded by the Texas Workforce Commission. In an effort to streamline and to promote synergy, both WiSE and TWEI have now integrated to form the National Wind Institute. NWI organizes and administers large multi-dimensional TTU wind-related research projects and serves as the contact point for major project sponsors and other external partners.

History

The Wind Science and Engineering (WiSE) Research Center was established in 1970 as the Institute for Disaster Research, following the F5

Lubbock tornado Portions of Lubbock, Texas, were struck by a powerful multiple-vortex tornado after nightfall on May 11, 1970, resulting in 26 fatalities and at least $135 million in damage. It was in its time the costliest tornado in U.S. history, da ...

that caused 26 fatalities and over $100 million in damage. Following the aftermath of the

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

, the WISE center developed the first comprehensive

report of its kind. In 2006, the

Enhanced Fujita scale The Enhanced Fujita scale (abbreviated as EF-Scale) rates tornado intensity based on the severity of the damage they cause. It is used in some countries, including the United States, Canada, China, and Mongolia. The Enhanced Fujita scale repl ...

was developed at TTU to update the original

Fujita scale The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is deter ...

that was first introduced in 1971. In 2003, with support from the National Science Foundation, the first interdisciplinary Ph.D. program dedicated to wind science and engineering was developed. Later, the Texas Wind Energy Institute (TWEI) was established as a partnership between TTU and Texas State Technical College designed to develop education and career pathways to meet workforce and educational needs of the expanding wind energy industry. A Bachelor's degree program in Wind Energy was opened in Spring 2012 and now has more than 100 students in the process of completing the degree requirements. Both WiSE and TWEI have now integrated to form the National Wind Institute (NWI).

Research Facilities

The Texas Tech campus hosts the NWI's administrative offices and the

Boundary Layer In physics and fluid mechanics, a boundary layer is the thin layer of fluid in the immediate vicinity of a bounding surface formed by the fluid flowing along the surface. The fluid's interaction with the wall induces a no-slip boundary cond ...

Wind Tunnel and Wind Library. Th
Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel
is a closed

wind tunnel Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...

offering a by test section that is capable of producing up winds speeds of up to . The facility also host
VorTECH
a tornado

vortex In fluid dynamics, a vortex ( : vortices or vortexes) is a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, which may be straight or curved. Vortices form in stirred fluids, and may be observed in smoke rings, whirlpools in ...

simulator and a Pulsed Jet Wind tunnel, which is used to simulate thunderstorm

downburst In meteorology, a downburst is a strong downward and outward gushing wind system that emanates from a point source above and blows radially, that is, in straight lines in all directions from the area of impact at surface level. Capable of pro ...

s. The NWI's Wind Library hosts one of the largest collections of wind related material in the world. The collection includes Ted Fujita's papers, reports and photographs, which were donated by the Fujita family and the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

. The library also includes documentation of more than 100 wind storms. The National Wind Institute occupies of indoor

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physic ...

space and has a large 67-acre field test site at the Reese Technology Center. Some of the facilities housed at the Reese Center include a 200-meter data acquisition tower, used to measure and record atmospheric conditions at ten levels, the Debris Impact Facility, th
Scaled Wind Farm Technology SWiFT facility
and a weather balloon facility. The Reese Center is also home to several

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

systems including a SODAR, Low Level Profiler, and the SMART-R Mobile Radar.

Research

Wind energy

Some of the National Wind Institute's

wind energy Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller impact on the environment than burning fossil fuels. Historically, w ...

research goals are the assessment of the risk and effects on

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...

exposure to extreme wind events, the improvement of wind turbine design codes with emphasis on extreme wind events, and the analysis and testing of

utility As a topic of economics, utility is used to model worth or value. Its usage has evolved significantly over time. The term was introduced initially as a measure of pleasure or happiness as part of the theory of utilitarianism by moral philosoph ...

-scale wind turbines for use in less-energetic wind conditions. The NWI is also focused on the identification of advanced wind-driven water treatment and desalination systems for

municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

and other applications, as well as the full-scale testing of wind-driven water desalination systems and the development of modeling codes for integrated wind-water desalination systems.

Debris impact

The NWI Debris Impact Facility performs tests on storm shelters and their various components to see if they meet established Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)l and International Code Council guidelines. Th
Debris Impact Facility
houses a high-powered air cannon that shoots wooden two-by-fours at shelter walls and doors to simulate flying debris. The cannon is capable of producing simulated wind speeds of more than 250 mph and provides valuable impact resistance data. Such data is used to develop standards for safe above-ground and below-ground shelters, and continues to be in demand for testing new shelter materials and constructions.

External links

References

{{coord, 33.586691, -101.874055, display=title Texas Tech University Wind energy organizations Tornado Structural engineering Organizations based in Lubbock, Texas