Newswise — As tornado season blows into the U.S., Texas Tech University’s Wind Science and Engineering Research Center prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary of studying the destructive storms and developing new technologies and methods of warning and damage mitigation.
Home to some of the nation’s most prominent wind researchers, Texas Tech has experts available in many disciplines. Tornado season made a deadly entrance March 10 across Arkansas when a 79-year-old man was killed and at least three others were injured from an EF2 tornado that was the first killer tornado in the U.S. since Oct. 9, 2009. Additional tornadoes tore through parts of North Carolina on Sunday (March 28).
Through the collaborative Wind Science and Engineering Research Center, scientists and engineers have collected one of the country’s largest repositories of wind data and helped develop the Enhanced Fujita Scale implemented in 2007 by the National Weather Service.
Daan Liang, assistant professor of construction engineering technology at Texas Tech, has studied with various probability models how the construction of buildings affects their vulnerability against severe windstorms. Recently, his research is focused on the advancement of remote sensing technology in documenting and assessing wind damages to residential structures.
Bradley Ewing, professor of operations management in the Rawls College of Business, has studied the economic impact of hurricanes and tornadoes for more than 12 years. He can speak to the impact of hurricanes and tornadoes in cities like Oklahoma City; Corpus Christi; Wilmington, N.C.; Miami; and Nashville, Tenn.
Ernst Kiesling, professor of civil engineering and executive director of the National Storm Shelter Association, can speak on the construction and use of residential and community shelters. Kiesling has more than 35 years of experience in the field documenting storm damage, writing performance standards for safe rooms, and verifying compliance of safe rooms with those standards.
Kishor Mehta, former director of the Wind Science and Engineering Research Center, helped lead a team that developed the new Enhanced Fujita Scale implemented by the National Weather Service in February 2007. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering for his studies of structural damage caused by windstorms and leadership in developing structural design standards for wind loads.
Larry Tanner, research associate in civil engineering, has years of field experience studying tornado damage and debris. Tanner’s research of approximately 400 manufactured homes damaged by a 2005 tornado that killed 22 people in Evansville, Ind., prompted new standards for mobile home installation in the region.
Christopher Weiss, assistant professor of atmospheric science, has researched the genesis and low-level wind structure of tornadoes for the past 13 years. He also maintains a research interest in the processes responsible for the generation of the parent thunderstorms. He can speak to the current scientific understanding regarding why tornadoes form and intensify, as well as how the structure of the tornado relates to the observed damage seen at the ground.
Andy Swift, professor of civil engineering and director of the Wind Science and Engineering Research Center, can answer questions about the center and its expansion and diversification in focus from strictly wind engineering to one that includes wind energy and renewable/sustainable energy.
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