MRI: Acquisition of a Three Component Particle-Image Velocimetry System to Enable Fundamental Research in Wind Engineering and Fluid Mechanics

这一重大研究仪器(MRI)奖支持收购三分量粒子图像速度测速(PIV)系统，以实现风墙(WOW)自然灾害工程研究基础设施(NHERI)设施以前无法获得的风场测量。这些数据将有助于更好地了解建筑物上的峰值风荷载与城市环境中建筑物周围的湍流之间的相关性。加强对湍流风物理的理解，可能会在流体力学和风工程方面带来重大突破。这一知识使更具弹性的设计能够提高经济竞争力，并在飓风等严重风力事件期间减少财产损失和生命损失。该仪器还将在WOW上推动新的跨学科研究合作，范围从城市地区的污染物扩散到能源系统和无人机的空气动力学。该仪器将通过动手PIV测量、新的实验模块以及接触广泛的流体动力学研究来增强学生的研究培训。来自WOW实验的数据将通过NHERI DesignSafe提供给社区研究人员。在描述高雷诺数下的湍流流动--特别是在复杂的流体-结构界面上--方面存在基本的知识空白。这种高时空分辨率的PIV系统将能够同时测量小尺度的瞬变和湍流特性，以及大尺度的平均速度场特征。这将使全流场测量(而不仅仅是风对建筑环境的影响)能够研究高雷诺数下的流固耦合，这在传统风洞中是无法实现的。PIV还将提供一个重要的工具，用于验证湍流模拟的数值模型，以及流体-结构相互作用的基本原理--可能导致风工程、流体动力学和高保真计算流体动力学模拟的突破。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award supports the acquisition of a three-component particle-image velocity velocimetry (PIV) system to enable previously unavailable wind flow field measurements at the Wall-of-Wind (WOW) Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) facility. These data will enable improved understanding of the correlation of peak wind loads on buildings and turbulent flows around buildings in urban settings. Enhanced understanding of the physics of turbulent wind flows may lead to major breakthroughs in both fluid mechanics and wind engineering. This knowledge enables more resilient designs that enhance economic competitiveness and reduce property loss and loss of life during severe wind events such as hurricanes. The instrumentation will also spur new cross disciplinary research collaborations at WOW in areas ranging from pollutant dispersion in urban areas to energy systems and aerodynamics of unmanned aerial vehicles. The instrumentation will provide enhanced student research training with hands-on PIV measurements, new experimental modules, and exposure to a broad range of fluid dynamics research. The data from WOW experiments will be made available to community researchers through NHERI DesignSafe.There are fundamental knowledge gaps in characterizing turbulent wind flows at high Reynolds numbers-- particularly at complex fluid-structure interfaces. This high spatio-temporal resolution PIV system will enable simultaneous measurements of small-scale transient and turbulent flow characteristics, as well as of large-scale mean velocity field features. This will permit whole-flow-field measurements (rather than just the impact of wind on the built environment) to study fluid-structure interaction at high Reynolds numbers that cannot be achieved in conventional wind tunnels. The PIV will also provide an important tool for the validation of numerical models for turbulent flow simulations, and the fundamentals of fluid-structure interactions-- potentially leading to breakthroughs in wind engineering, fluid dynamics and high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics simulation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.