Wind Tunnel Experimentation on Stationary Downbursts at WindEEE Dome

Abstract

In the context of the European Project THUNDERR a scientific collaboration between the Wind Engineering and Structural Dynamics (Windyn) Research Group of the University of Genoa (Italy) and the Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment (WindEEE) Research Institute of Western University (Canada) has been established to study experimentally at the WindEEE Dome facility how the main geometrical and mechanical properties of downbursts are affected by different cloud base outflows of stationary thunderstorms. At present, the analysis of the downbursts simulated experimentally is ongoing and some preliminary elaborations have been obtained concerning the qualitative and quantitative interpretation of the corresponding signals. Classical signal decomposition was applied to experimentally produced downbursts in the WindEEE Dome in order to study transient features of the time series. This study presents the results for two radial positions from downdraft centre and for twenty repetitions per radial position. Several prospects for further research are also discussed.