Wind speed inference from environmental flow-structure interactions

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to estimate wind speed by analyzing the deformation of structures like cylinders and trees under wind load, using physical models and visual measurements, offering a non-intrusive alternative to traditional flow measurement techniques.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel approach to infer wind speed from structural deformation data, eliminating the need for flow visualization or direct instrumentation.

Findings

Wind speeds inferred matched ground truth measurements.

Method applicable to different structure types.

Non-intrusive flow velocimetry demonstrated successfully.

Abstract

This study aims to leverage the relationship between fluid dynamic loading and resulting structural deformation to infer the incident flow speed from measurements of time-dependent structure kinematics. Wind tunnel studies are performed on cantilevered cylinders and trees. Tip deflections of the wind-loaded structures are captured in time series data, and a physical model of the relationship between force and deflection is applied to calculate the instantaneous wind speed normalized with respect to a known reference wind speed. Wind speeds inferred from visual measurements showed consistent agreement with ground truth anemometer measurements for different cylinder and tree configurations. These results suggest an approach for non-intrusive, quantitative flow velocimetry that eliminates the need to directly visualize or instrument the flow itself.