Wind engineering

Wind engineering is a branch of engineering that focuses on studying the effects of wind on various structures, including buildings, bridges, and towers. It aims to ensure the safety, stability, and functionality of the structures, and it involves analyzing how wind forces can impact the structures, as well as designing them to withstand these forces. Wind engineering is particularly important in regions prone to strong winds, hurricanes, or tornadoes, where designing structures to resist wind loads is critical for public safety and infrastructure resilience. Wind engineers use principles from fluid dynamics and/or structural mechanics to assess several factors, e.g. wind speed, direction, turbulence, and pressure distribution. By conducting wind tunnel testing, computer simulations, and mathematical modeling, they can predict the behavior of structures under different wind conditions and optimize their design to minimize wind-induced vibrations.