By Erik Salna
It was the moment of truth. Students from South Florida high schools anxiously watched Zoom live streams to determine whether their models of flat rooftops would stand up against 70 mph winds at FIU’s NHERI Wall of Wind (WOW) Experimental Facility.
Every year, FIU hosts its Wall of Wind Mitigation Challenge, in which teams of local high school students develop innovative wind mitigation concepts and solutions within guidelines set by FIU’s wind engineers. The objective of the 2021 challenge was for students to design a way to reduce the impact of wind scour – the process of wind scraping against surfaces – on a building’s flat roof. Each team had to develop a solution to prevent roof gravel from blowing away during testing.