Wind engineering facilities

Unsteady Wind Tunnel

WiRL operates the School of Civil Engineering’s Unsteady Wind Tunnel (UWT). The UWT is a variable speed Eiffel-style wind tunnel that has a test section 760 mm x 760 mm in dimension and a wind speed range up to approximately 50 m/s. The tunnel’s variable speed drive can be actively programmed such that it can generate temporally fluctuating wind fields with tunnel scale accelerations up to 10 m/s². The UWT is equipped with pressure sensing (TSI, TFI) and velocity measurement (hot wire, Cobra Probe) equipment and is actively used for research and teaching purposes.

Surface Weather Information Relay and Logging Network (SWIRLnet)

In conjunction with the Cyclone Testing Station (CTS) at James Cook University (JCU), WiRL plays an integral role in assisting with SWIRLnet deployments in landfalling tropical cyclone (TCs), processing the data collected both in real-time and post-storm, and disseminating the observations to the general research community, and private stakeholders. SWIRLnet is comprised of ruggedized 3 m tall towers that collects wind speed and direction, temperature, relative humidity, and barometric pressure at a sampling rate of 10 Hz. JCU has six SWIRLnet towers that are stored on a trailer and towed by a 4x4 truck.