Regular sessions

  • S01: CWE Guidelines and Best Practices: (to be merged into MS07)

    • Guidelines and recommendations for CWE;
    • CFD verification and validation;
    • Uncertainty quantification for CFD;

  • S02: Inflow and other statistical simulation methodologies:

    • Inflow generation for CFD;
    • Non-stationary flow simulation

  • S03: Non-synoptic wind simulation: 

    • Simulating tornadoes in CFD, WRF, and other computational methods;
    • Thunderstorm downburst winds in CFD, WRF, or other computational methods;
    • Simulation of other non-synoptic winds

  • S04: Wind Loads and Structural Response:

    • Computational wind load evaluation;
    • Wind-induced damage modeling;
    • Structural response modeling;
    • Computational tools for performance-based wind engineering

  • S05: Building and Urban Aerodynamics:

    • Building aerodynamics;
    • Urban wind flow;
    • Pedestrian-level wind;
    • Ventilation

  • S06: Bridge, Transport, and Infrastructure Aerodynamics:

    • Bridge aerodynamics;
    • Train/vehicle aerodynamics;
    • Sport aerodynamics

  • S07: Environmental and Hazard-Related Flows:

    • Pollutant dispersion;
    • Urban heat-island effects;
    • Wind-driven rain;
    • Snow-drift;
    • Wind-borne debris

  • S08: Wind Energy and Renewable Applications:

    • Wind energy;
    • Structural response

  • S09: Machine Learning and Digital Twins in CWE:

    • Machine learning and AI in wind engineering;
    • Digital twins in wind engineering

  • S10: High-Performance Computing and Emerging Topics:

    • High-performance computing for wind engineering;
    • Innovative workflows and computational strategies;
    • Emerging cross-disciplinary topics in CWE

Mini-symposia

MS01: Multi-disciplinary Efforts in Reducing Adverse Impact from Tornadoes, Downbursts and Gust Front

Organized by: Guirong (Grace) Yan

The increasing damage from extreme winds, such as tornadoes, downbursts and gust front, in recent years demonstrates the vulnerability of civil structures to these extreme winds. To reduce the adverse impact of these extreme winds, it is essential to understand the wind characteristics and their interaction with the built environment. Due to the violent nature of these extreme winds, field measurements are still challenging. Simulations, either numerical or experimental, have been conducted. This mini-symposium will bring in experts from multiple disciplines to share their contributions in developing the simulations of extreme winds using CFD or in the lab, and their challenges in validating their models/simulations using field measurements, if available. The five presentations in each of the two sessions will serve as a conversation starter. All presenters and the audience will be engaged in discussions on the possibility and strategies to further improve the simulation fidelity.

Organized by: Xuelin (Bella) Zhang, and Asiri Umenga Weerasuriya

Currently, urban wind environments face new challenges, such as climate change, and encounter new experiences, such as unmanned air mobility (UAM). Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have yet to investigate the effects of these phenomena on urban wind environments. The proposed mini symposium explores how CFD simulation can be employed to overcome modern challenges and thrive in new experiences of urban wind environments. This mini symposium will discuss new frontiers in CFD simulations of urban wind environments, including but not limited to modeling climate change, extreme weather conditions (e.g., downbursts), and dispersion of emerging air pollutants, adopting new CFD techniques, such as fast fluid simulations, embedded Large Eddy Simulations (LES), coupling meso-scale and micro-scale simulations, inverse modeling, and using CFD simulation for planning UAM. The topics discussed in this mini symposium will direct researchers to innovative use of CFD simulations for modeling urban wind environments in the coming years.

Organized by: Jiayao Wang, Ahsan Kareem, and You Dong

This symposium addresses the global challenge of wind-related disasters, which are intensified by climate change and rapid urbanization and pose increasing risks to the safety and performance of urban and coastal infrastructure. It aims to build a stronger connection between advanced computational research and real-world engineering practice by integrating high-fidelity numerical simulation, artificial intelligence (AI), and data-driven modeling. The main scientific goal is to improve the understanding of wind-structure interaction—from basic aerodynamics to multi-hazard effects—and to support the development of intelligent and resilience-focused design methods. The session will include interdisciplinary discussions on a variety of topics, such as wake flow dynamics, AI applications in wind engineering, damage investigation of typhoons and tornadoes, and probabilistic modeling of downburst and typhoon effects on long-span bridges and coastal cities.

Organized by: Bowei Li, and Guangzhao Chen

Extreme wind events frequently cause widespread damage to the built environment, emphasizing the urgent need for rapid, reliable post-disaster evaluation. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) offer transformative capabilities for automating and enhancing post-wind-disaster reconnaissance and assessment. This session focuses on state-of-the-art research and applications that integrate computer vision, large language model (LLM), and data-driven modeling, along with remote sensing techniques, to identify, classify, and quantify wind-induced damage. Beyond immediate assessment, AI also enables inverse wind hazard inference, the extraction of wind field characteristics and hazard information from field observed damage and environmental data. Contributions addressing remote sensing, autonomous reconnaissance, multimodal data fusion, and AI-enhanced hazard modeling are particularly encouraged. The session aims to bring together diverse disciplines to explore scalable, intelligent, and adaptive solutions for understanding and mitigating wind-induced disasters, supporting faster response, recovery, and long-term resilience in wind hazard-prone communities.

Organized by: Payam Gholamalipour, Ted Stathopoulos, and Hua Ge

Wind-Driven Rain (WDR) is a critical environmental load affecting the durability and performance of buildings and structures such as bridges. Wind-driven rain (WDR) refers to the combined effect of rain and wind, occurring when raindrops are driven obliquely by the horizontal force of the wind. This phenomenon is closely studied in wind engineering, where the interaction of wind flow with buildings and structures is analyzed to predict and mitigate adverse effects. The effects that can lead to surface erosion, material degradation, and structural damage.

This session aims to enhance the scientific understanding of WDR through experimental studies, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations, and Machine learning (ML) modeling. Topics include validation and verification of CFD models, enhancing semi-empirical models, and case studies. The session promotes collaboration toward resilient, durable, and climate-adaptive design solutions for buildings and structures.

Organized by: Fei Ding, and Teng Wu

Rapid advances in AI are opening new frontiers in computational wind engineering. This mini-symposium highlights emerging opportunities in AI-integrated CFD, encompassing modern machine learning, generative modeling, and agentic AI, along with HPC to transform CFD workflows. Generative AI, such as transformers and diffusion models, together with modern machine learning approaches, including data-driven models (e.g., unsupervised/supervised learning), physics-informed networks (e.g., rationalism-based regularization), and knowledge-enhanced deep learning (e.g., empiricism-based regularization), provide new avenues for discovering the underlying physical laws and enhancing the representations of turbulence. Agentic AI systems, powered by LLMs, have the potential to streamline simulation processes, minimize human intervention, and improve consistency by following established CFD best practices. Meanwhile, advances in high-performance computing, such as GPU acceleration, continue to expand the scalability and efficiency of simulations. Together, these innovations pave the way for a new paradigm in CFD characterized by increased automation, reliability, interpretability, and computational accuracy and efficiency.

Organized by: Bert Blocken, Ted Stathopoulos, and Yoshihide Tominaga

Throughout the past decades, the symposium on Computational Wind Engineering has been a major venue for researchers and practitioners working on CFD simulations in wind engineering. In the past years, several very valuable sets of best practice guidelines on CFD in CWE have been developed. However, the complexity of CFD still leaves many questions unanswered. These special sessions will focus on best practice advice in CFD, focusing on geometry and grid generation, boundary conditions, and turbulence modelling. The special sessions will also include panel discussions to encourage broader engagement.

Organized by: Anant Gairola, and Djordje Romanic

Non-synoptic wind systems such as tornadoes, downbursts and orographic winds pose unique challenges to study their effects on the built environment in part due to their local, transient, and three-dimensional nature. This mini symposium focuses on the application of CFD to study these complex wind phenomena and their effects on structures. Contributions that explore advanced numerical modeling techniques such as LES, URANS, as well as classical RANS simulations for modelling the near surface winds from such systems and their interaction with the built environment are invited. Alternative and novel numerical methods for simulating non-synoptic winds are also welcome. The session aims to provide a forum for researchers to share progress in model development, validation, and practical wind engineering applications such as wind load evaluation. By fostering discussions across various modeling approaches, this symposium seeks to advance the applicability and capabilities of CFD for realistic simulation of non-synoptic wind events.

Organized by: Jin Wang, and Guowei Qian

Wind tunnel testing and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are complementary tools in modern wind engineering. While CFD enables detailed flow visualization and parametric studies, reliable validation against high-quality experimental data remains essential to ensure model accuracy and physical realism. This session will discuss the role of wind tunnel testing as the foundation for CFD validation across key applications in wind engineering, including synoptic and non-synoptic winds, bluff-body aerodynamics, wind effects on structures, and wind energy. This session will include presentations on benchmark case studies, advanced measurement techniques, and data-driven approaches that bridge experimental testing and numerical simulation. By fostering dialogue between experimentalists and modelers, the session aims to identify challenges, establish best practices for CFD validation, and promote integrated experimental-computational methodologies that advance the predictive capability of wind engineering and enhance the design resilience of the built environment.

Organized by: Maria Pia Repetto, Félix Nieto, Connell Shamus Miller, and Stefanie Gillmeier

This mini-symposium showcases new, high-quality experimental datasets generated in wind-tunnel laboratories and field campaigns, highlighting their value for the CWE community. The session focuses on experimental and field-measurement methodologies, advanced instrumentation, and the capabilities of modern research facilities, with particular emphasis on how these datasets can support AI-based analysis and CFD validation.

The goal is to strengthen the involvement of experimentalists in CWE and to provide CFD researchers with robust, reliable benchmark data. Presentations will cover wind and aerodynamic measurements (including resources such as the ERIES open database, Northern Tornado Projects etc.), aeroelastic data, climate-parameter observations, novel sensing and measurement technologies, and emerging opportunities for integrated experimental–numerical collaboration.

Contact

Address

1151 Richmond Street, London, ON, N6A 3K7

Email

cwe2026@uwo.ca

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