We had a great time sponsoring and judging the Wall of Wind Mitigation Challenge (WOW! Challenge) for South Florida high school students. So much talent in one room! Our Managing Partner, Brian Peterson and Civil & Structural Engineer, Ziad Azzi, PhD, PE, were onsite to help with project review and judging.
The objective for the 2023 challenge was to reduce the wind-induced uplift force on a building’s roof by optimizing its overall shape. Solutions demonstrated a sound comprehension of aerodynamic principles. Teams of students were tasked with developing a roofing solution to improve the aerodynamic performance of the roof, with the goal of reducing the roof-to-wall forces and moments on a scaled-down model of the roof concept. The building roof models were tested by the NSF-NHERI Wall of Wind at FIU to evaluate the effectiveness of the mitigation solution. The competition required a written technical paper, an oral presentation and a physical wind test of a building model by the NSF-NHERI Wall of Wind.
Hosted by Florida International University (FIU) Hurricane Research Center, WOW is the largest and most powerful university research facility of its kind and is capable of simulating a Category 5 hurricane with winds over 157 mph.
The NHERI Wall of Wind (WOW) Experimental Facility (EF) is located at FIU’s College of Engineering and Computing. The national facility enables researchers to better understand wind effects on civil infrastructure systems and to prevent wind hazards from becoming community disasters. The WOW is the largest and most powerful university research facility of its kind and is capable of simulating a Category 5 hurricane with winds over 157 mph. It includes 12 very large electric fan motors that are utilized to test structures, materials and products and their ability to withstand hurricane-force winds. To learn more about the NSF-NHERI Wall of Wind, please visit: https://fiu.designsafe-ci.org/.
The International Hurricane Research Center (IHRC), located on the FIU campus, developed the WOW! Challenge as an educational opportunity for South Florida high school students. This community education outreach project is supported by a grant from the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
