Advancements in wind science and engineering

Abstract

This chapter addresses the outburst of research and applications that, since the early 1960s, has given rise to the transition from a set of varied and often independent subjects to an organic and unitary vision of the phenomena that revolve around the wind and its effects on men, buildings, territory and environment. This evolution is organised according to three successive phases. In the first phase, from 1963 to 1978, the study of wind actions and effects on structures determined an unprecedented aggregation of interests around wind modelling, bluff-body aerodynamics and wind-excited response of structures. In the second phase, from 1979 to 1998, the scientific community involved in wind and of its effects on structures felt the need to broaden its horizons and to give life to a new cultural aggregation called Wind Engineering. In the third phase, since 1999, a new transformation has been taking place according to which Wind Engineering, more and more often labelled as Wind Science and Engineering, shows a bursting development aiming to enlarge engineering boundaries towards a renewed vision that embraces most sectors of science and penetrates into society through scientific, technical and educational initiatives that are increasingly numerous, ramified and incisive.