Unsteady Flows with applications to Wind Resilience and Sustainability

我们社区的韧性和可持续性对加拿大人来说是最重要的价值。2015年，联合国批准了仙台减少灾害风险框架，申请人参与了该框架。今年早些时候，加拿大公共安全部批准了《仙台协定》。根据慕尼黑再保险公司2015年的数据，严重雷暴造成的损失占北美地区损失的60%，总计约100亿美元。同时，风能是加拿大最大的可再生能源发电来源；根据加拿大风能协会的数据，2015年，风能装机容量超过1万兆瓦，位居世界第七。到目前为止，已有大量的知识致力于将风及其影响定性为静止过程。然而，许多风的流动和风的相互作用要么是非均匀的，要么是时间相关的，或者它们的湍流特性偏离了典型的随机统计过程。这些不稳定的风系统以一种尚未被理解的方式作用于我们的建筑和自然栖息地，因此建立模型、描述和确定它们的影响是很重要的。申请人在过去的几年里一直致力于产生这些风流，并在西方大学的风能工程、能源和环境（WindEEE）穹顶中研究它们的大规模特征（www.windeee.ca）；该设施由申请人在概念上设计并成功转入运营阶段，在世界上是独一无二的。在此，我们建议将这项工作带入下一个维度，在研究这些非静止风的湍流特征及其与建筑物，结构和能源装置的相互作用方式方面取得突破，以优化能量提取并最大限度地减少损害。为了实现这些目标，提出了两个研究阶段：1)对非平稳风系统（如龙卷风、下突风和其他非平稳入流系统）进行详细表征和建模；2)研究这些风与建筑物和结构、地形粗糙度、地形和树冠之间的相互作用。这些流动的复杂性质和由此产生的相互作用可以用模态时空分解来最好地表征，在模态时空分解中，流动和相互作用都被简化为许多具有代表性的状态。一旦这些流动特征，结果可用于：(i)为未来的指导方针和规范生成相关的数据库和模型，以更好地设计抗风害；（ii）校准并大幅改进用于设计更具可持续性的建筑和社区、风力涡轮机、太阳能电池板以及风能和太阳能农场的方法。此外，高素质的人员将在独特的WindEEE Dome设施接受培训，在那里他们将进行变革性的风能研究，以减少风力破坏，提高我们社区的可持续性。

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.