Wind loading on low-rise buildings 

Investigation of external and internal wind-induced loading on and development of refined physical modeling techniques for low-rise buildings have been the focal point of a long-term fundamental research carried out at the WEFL.  This work has been a laboratory component of the CSU/TTU Cooperative Program supported by the US National Science Foundation.  Its field counterpart has been carried by faculty, staff and students at Texas Tech University (TTU).  The scope of work has been defined through a number of tasks, addressed by teams at each university.  One of tasks of work performed at WEFL was focused on development of wind-tunnel technique(s) for simulating wind flow at geometrical scales suitable for refined modeling of wind loading on low-rise buildings.  Work on this task was carried out in long-test-section boundary-layer wind tunnels at the WEFL.  One of experimental arrangements resulting from this effort is illustrated above, where an instrumented model of the TTU test building is shown in the test section of the Meteorological Wind Tunnel (MWT).