AMHERST, N.Y. — Upstate New York was battered by a record-setting 31 tornadoes this summer. It left communities shocked and in shambles.

The University at Buffalo may have the answer to ensure that New York infrastructure can withstand the changing conditions.

What You Need To Know

  • University at Buffalo Ph.D students use a wind tunnel to test current building codes from the ground up 

  • Federal funding will help the tunnel become the first AI tunnel in the world 

  • Research done at UB is given to the American Society of Civil Engineers

When you think of a wind tunnel, the first thing that comes to mind is probably one of those indoor sky-diving facilities. The facility in this story is that, but flipped on its side, and it mimics extreme weather events.

Outside of Ketter Hall, there's foreshadowing of changes to come.

“The most exciting thing we are going to add [is] like a high-performance computer that could be used for AI,” said Teng Wu, a civil and engineering professor at UB.

Wu says it will make a wind tunnel on campus the first AI-powered tunnel in the world. His team will soon have $475,000 in federal funding through the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program connected to FEMA and NOAA.

It will help better replicate tornadoes, just as an example. 

“[It] can help us to better design our structure and also can change or to modify or to revise the construction code and the building codes if needed,” Wu explained.

Wu says the wind tunnel has 64 fans, and adding AI will take it to the next level in terms of replicating nature.

“They are individually controlled so that we can generate a some very unique complex,” Wu said.

In one simulation, they’re looking at conditions similar to when the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapsed in Washington state in 1940. Wu says they can mimic hurricanes, nor’easters and even thunderstorm downbursts.

The group of Ph.D research students helping him come from around the world. Collectively, they’re looking at how wind impacts an entire city.

Baichuan Deng studies the upper levels of buildings.

“The wind tunnels [play] a very important role in the determination of the wind field around the specific building," Deng said. 

Deng says the data they’ll gather will make people more confident in what they call home.

“That's what all of us here are hoping for, to actually make an impact, you know, make things better," said Mohammad Movahhed, a Ph.D civil engineering student studying urban systems. “With the climate change, it's just becoming more apparent that, you know, we should also consider these types of phenomena in our design and in our, decision-making, especially for municipalities." 

It will be a couple of years before all the new technology is up and running on the tunnel. Until then, studies will continue to try and make cities more disaster-resilient. 

“Whatever we measure we calculate, we analyze that back to the real world,” Wu said.

Their findings are published, and the team's data goes to the American Society of Civil Engineers — directly into the hands of the men and women who build cities.