FIU-based meteorologist and educator Erik Salna relates some unusual but important WOW experiments to test the effects of wind loading on civil infrastructure such as construction cranes and electrical power towers. One unique project used flying debris in the wind tunnel to derive an algorithm for determining wind speeds in video captures.

Wall of Wind debris experiments to build an algorithm that will calculate wind speeds from social media-derived video: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2053935&HistoricalAwards=false

Research on transmission towers: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1751844&HistoricalAwards=false

Research on construction site equipment in windstorms: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1635378&HistoricalAwards=false

See the WOW in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkI0UjmFFDs

Visit the NSF-NHERI Wall of Wind website for details on research underway: https://fiu.designsafe-ci.org/

Follow FIU Extreme Events Institute on X: @FIUExtremeEvent Follow the Wall of Wind on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FIUWOW