Unsteady Flows with applications to Wind Resilience and Sustainability

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The resilience and sustainability of our communities are of paramount value for Canadians. In 2015, the United Nations approved the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, in which the applicant was involved. Earlier this year, Public Safety Canada endorsed the Sendai Agreement. According to Munich Re in 2015, severe thunderstorms were responsible for 60% of losses in North America, totaling approximately $10 billion. At the same time, wind is the largest source of renewable energy for electricity generation in Canada; in 2015, wind's installed capacity surpassed 10,000 MW placing it seventh in the world, according to the Canadian Wind Energy Association.Until now a body of knowledge has been dedicated to characterize winds and their impacts as stationary processes. However, many of the wind flows and wind interactions are either non-uniform or time dependent or their turbulence characteristics depart from typical random statistical processes. These non-stationary wind systems act on our built and natural habitat in a way that is not yet understood and it is therefore important to model, characterize and determine their impacts. The applicant has dedicated the last number of years generating these wind flows and studying their large scale characteristics in the Wind Engineering Energy and Environment (WindEEE) Dome at Western University (www.windeee.ca); this facility, which the applicant has conceptually designed and successfully transferred to operational phase, is unique in the world. Herein it is proposed to bring this work to the next dimension making a breakthrough in the investigation of the turbulent characteristics of these non-stationary winds and the way they interact with buildings, structures and energy devices in order to optimize energy extraction and minimize damage. To achieve these goals two research phases are proposed: 1) characterize and model in detail non-stationary wind systems such as tornados, downbursts and other non-stationary inflow systems; 2) investigate the interactions between these winds with buildings and structures, terrain roughness, topography and canopy. The complex nature of these flows and the resulting interactions can be best characterized in terms of modal time-space decompositions in which both the flows and the interactions are reduced to a number of representative states. Once these flows are characterized, the results can be used to: (i) generate relevant databases and models for future guidelines and codes to better design against wind damage; and (ii) calibrate and drastically improve the methods used to design more sustainable buildings and communities, wind turbines, and solar panels as well as wind and solar farms. Also, highly qualified personnel will be trained in the unique WindEEE Dome facility where they will conduct transformative wind research to reduce wind damage and increase sustainability in our communities.