The aim of the module is to alert students to the huge potential of the wind for destruction and also to help save the planet.

• Social and economic context: storm damage; climate change; pedestrian comfort; and wind as an energy source
• Basic meteorology: global circulation; weather systems; types of wind (tornados, hurricanes, etc.)
• Wind characteristics: wind spectra; macro- and micro-meteorological winds; atmospheric boundary layer; gustiness
• Bluff body aerodynamics: flow around cylinders and surface mounted cubes; steady and unsteady forces on bluff bodies
• Wind-structure interaction: buffeting, vortex shedding, galloping, flutter, divergence; brief introduction to structural dynamics; case study of Tacoma Narrows failure
• Wind engineering tools: codes of practice (EUROCODE); wind tunnel modelling; computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
• Wind energy; onshore versus offshore wind farms; turbine energy yield; effects of topology; layout; design; planning issues.