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1. Effects of Aspect Ratio on Laboratory Simulation of Tornado-Like Vortices

   https://doi.org/10.12989/was.2018.27.2.111  

   Zhuo Tang, Delong Zuo ( August 2018 , Wind and Structures)

   Experiments were conducted in a large-scale Ward-type tornado simulator to study tornado-like vortices. Both flow velocities and the pressures at the surface beneath the vortices were measured. An interpretation of these measurements enabled an assessment of the mean flow field as well as the mean and fluctuating characteristics of the surface pressure deficit, which is a manifestation of the flow fluctuation aloft. An emphasis was placed on the effect of the aspect ratio of the tornado simulator on the characteristics of the simulated flow and the corresponding surface pressure deficit, especially the evolution of these characteristics due to the transition of the flow from a single-celled vortex to a two-celled vortex with increasing swirl ratio. 

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2. Examination of Diffusion Patterns of Tornado Warning Using an Agent-Based Model and Simulation

   https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-21-0089.1  

   Liang, Daan ; Cong, Zhen ; Cao, Guofeng ( April 2022 , Weather, Climate, and Society)

   Timely communication of warnings is essential to protection of lives and properties during tornado outbreaks. Both official and personal channels of communication prove to have considerable impact on the overall outcome. In this study, an agent-based model is developed to simulate warning’s reception–dissemination process in which a person is exposed to, receives, and sends information while interacting with others. The model is applied to an EF5 tornado (EF indicates enhanced Fujita scale) that struck Moore, Oklahoma, in 2013. The parameters are calibrated using publicly available data or a poststorm telephone survey or were derived from literature reviews, expert judgement, and sensitivity analysis. The result shows a reasonable agreement between modeled and observed reception rates for older and younger adults and for different channels, with errors of less than 20 percentage points. Similar agreement is also seen for the average numbers of warning sources. The subsequent simulation indicates that, in the absence of tornado sirens, the overall reception rates for younger and older adults would drop from the baseline by 17 and 6 percentage points, respectively. Concurrently, there is a large decline in the number of warning sources. When a persons’ social network is enlarged, the reception rate for older adults improves from 77% to 80%, whereas for younger adults it stays unchanged. The impact of increased connectivity is more pronounced when people are not watching television or a tornado siren is not available.

   Every year, tornadoes cause significant property damage and numerous casualties in the United States. This study aims to understand how tornado warnings reach the at-risk public through various communication channels. Using the agent-based model and simulation, we are able to reconstruct the dynamic patterns of warning’s reception–dissemination process for older and younger adults within a historical EF5 tornado. Further analysis confirms the importance of tornado sirens in not only alerting more residents about the dangerous weather condition but also prompting protective actions. In the meantime, an increase in social connectivity among residents would compensate for the lack of exposure to television and tornado siren. Future work should investigate the robustness of this model and its parameters when applied to other tornado outbreaks.

    

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3. Probabilistic simulation of tornado-like loading on a low-rise building based on laboratory testing

   Wu, Xinyang ; Zuo, Delong ( August 2023 , 16th International Conference on Wind Engineering)

   Tornadoes can cause severe damage to buildings, but it is difficult to measure tornado loading on structures due to limitation of equipment. To enable investigations of tornado effects on buildings, this paper presents a method that can be used to numerically simulate nonstationary, non-Gaussian tornado-like loading based on laboratory testing. An illustrative application shows that the proposed method can successfully simulate tornado-like loading that is statistically similar to the loading measured in experiments. 

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4. Differences in flow structures of tornado vortex and efficiency of different tornado chambers

   Verma, Sumit. ; Selvam, Rathinam P. ( January 2021 , 6th AAWE workshop)

   This is a summary paper 

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5. Computer modelling of close-to-ground tornado wind-fields for different tornado widths

   Kashefizadeh, M.H ; Verma, S ; Selvam, R.P. ( August 2019 , Journal of wind engineering and industrial aerodynamics)

   Tangential velocity (Vt) of tornadoes is the major parameter that causes building damage. In-field tornado measurements are less reliable at less than 20 m above ground level (AGL). Laboratory tornado simulators suggest that swirl ratio (S) and radius (ro) are the major tornado parameters that influence the Vt. However, due to scaling problems, the laboratory simulators also report the Vt at greater than 20 m AGL. Well-refined computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models can evaluate the Vt at less than 10 m AGL. However, the CFD models are limited to ro = 1.0 km, and the effect of ro on Vt is not investigated. The aim of this study is to investigate the maximum Vt for different ro close to ground. Simulation results show that increasing ro decreases the maximum Vt with respect to Vro. Moreover, by increasing ro, the corresponding elevation of occurrence of maximum Vt (zmax) will increase. However, for all tornado radii, the zmax is between 20 m and 64 m AGL. In addition, results show that for all ro, the radial Vt profile has two peaks at z < 10 m AGL due to strong shear force close to the ground and at higher elevation the profile transits to Rankine Combined Vortex Model (RCVM). 

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