Unsteady Flows with applications to Wind Resilience and Sustainability

我们社区的复原力和可持续性对加拿大人来说至关重要。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，加拿大公共安全局批准了仙台协议。根据慕尼黑再保险2015年的数据，北美60%的损失是由严重的雷暴造成的，总计约100亿美元。与此同时，风能是加拿大最大的可再生能源发电；根据加拿大风能协会的数据，2015年，加拿大风电装机容量超过1万兆瓦，位居世界第七。到目前为止，人们一直致力于将风及其影响描述为稳定的过程。然而，许多风流和风相互作用要么是非均匀的，要么是与时间相关的，或者它们的湍流特征与典型的随机统计过程不同。这些不稳定的风系统以一种尚不清楚的方式作用于我们建造的和自然的栖息地，因此，重要的是对它们的影响进行建模、表征和确定。申请者在过去的几年里一直致力于在西方大学(www.windeee.ca)的风工程能源与环境(WindEEE)穹顶中产生这些风流并研究其大尺度特征；该设施是世界上独一无二的，申请者已经从概念上设计并成功地转移到运行阶段。在此，建议将这项工作带入下一个维度，在研究这些非定常风的湍流特性以及它们与建筑物、结构和能源设备相互作用的方式方面取得突破，以优化能量提取并将损害降至最低。为了实现这些目标，提出了两个研究阶段：1)对龙卷风、下击暴流和其他非平稳流入系统等非定常风系统进行详细的表征和建模；2)研究这些风与建筑物和构筑物、地形粗糙度、地形和树冠之间的相互作用。这些流动和由此产生的相互作用的复杂性质可以用模式时空分解来最好地描述，在这种分解中，流动和相互作用都被减少到许多代表性状态。一旦确定了这些流动的特征，结果就可以用于：(I)为未来的指导方针和规范生成相关的数据库和模型，以便更好地设计防风损害；以及(Ii)校准和大幅改进用于设计更可持续的建筑和社区、风力涡轮机、太阳能电池板以及风力和太阳能发电场的方法。此外，高素质的人员将在独特的WindEEE穹顶设施中接受培训，他们将在那里进行变革性的风能研究，以减少风灾并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.