Center for Hazard Mitigation and Community Resilience (HMCR)

Directed by Guirong (Grace) Yan

The Sinquefield laboratory tornado simulator at the Center for Hazard Mitigation and Community Resilience, directed by Dr. Guirong (Grace) Yan, can produce translating tornadoes with a single vortex or with multiple vortices. It is composed of a circular duct with an outer diameter of 20.20 feet, a fan in the middle, a bridge crane, and a ground plane. The fan has a diameter of 84 inches; it can generate swirling wind flow with a water static pressure of 1.6 inches at a rate of 139,000 cubic feet per minute. The bridge crane enables the circular duct maneuver along a straight path to simulate the translation of tornadoes. The translating speed can reach up to 8 feet/second. The ground plane can be raised and lowered to achieve variations of the desirable aspect ratio. This tornado simulator is unique with a dome-shaped top of the chamber that is designed to reduce energy loss when changing air-flow directions. It is also unique with curved turning vanes that are designed to decrease the turbulence generated in the duct. These unique features enable us to generate stable wind flow rotating around large-scale test models. This facility is America’s largest tornado simulator that can produce translating swirling wind flow.

Fig. 4 laboratory tornado simulator at Center for Hazard Mitigation and Community Resilience