Wind engineering

Wind engineering is a subsets of mechanical engineering, structural engineering, meteorology, and applied physics to analyze the effects of wind in the natural and the built environment and studies the possible damage, inconvenience or benefits which may result from wind. In the field of engineering it includes strong winds, which may cause discomfort, as well as extreme winds, such as in a tornado, hurricane or heavy storm, which may cause widespread destruction. In the fields of wind energy and air pollution it also includes low and moderate winds as these are relevant to electricity production resp. dispersion of contaminants. Wind engineering is a subsets of mechanical engineering, structural engineering, meteorology, and applied physics to analyze the effects of wind in the natural and the built environment and studies the possible damage, inconvenience or benefits which may result from wind. In the field of engineering it includes strong winds, which may cause discomfort, as well as extreme winds, such as in a tornado, hurricane or heavy storm, which may cause widespread destruction. In the fields of wind energy and air pollution it also includes low and moderate winds as these are relevant to electricity production resp. dispersion of contaminants. Wind engineering draws upon meteorology, fluid dynamics, mechanics, geographic information systems and a number of specialist engineering disciplines including aerodynamics, and structural dynamics. The tools used include atmospheric models, atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnels, and computational fluid dynamics models.