University of Western Ontario

To date no one has ever attempted real-world wind simulation on low-rise buildings. The University of Western Ontario wishes to change that, with the help of Cambridge Consultants, by constructing a research centre known as ‘The Three Little Pigs’ facility.

This facility will be housed in a hanger-style building and will be capable of subjecting full sized buildings to the wind loading that would be experienced during a hurricane. Cambridge Consultants has been engaged to develop the wind simulators to be used in the facility. There will be over 100 individual wind simulators, which will consist of high-performance fans controlled in real time to apply positive and negative wind forces over a +5 to –20 kilopascals range (5 kilopascals equates to a weight of around 500kg for every square metre of roof). Each wind simulator module will additionally feature a sophisticated control and networking system that will allow the complex time and spatially varying wind effects of the real world to be realistically applied.

The simulators also include a fast-acting valve system that enables wind pressure to reverse direction up to 7 times per second. This means the facility can reproduce the rapidly changing sucking and blowing wind loads that are so destructive to roof structures (particularly at the corners), providing a very realistic simulation.

The University’s deep understanding of wind patterns, combined with our ability to develop industrial products of this nature, will allow the facility to create and apply realistic wind profiles to various buildings and roof types. The information gathered will be fed back into the industry, where building codes can be modified and the next generation of building materials and processes can be developed.