The Great Game

How you ever thought, "I just need a hurricane right now?" Now you can get one, delivered on a trailer. How cool is that?!

Researchers at the University of Florida (UF) have developed a portable wind and rain simulator that can create a hurricane environment in a laboratory setting for scientific study. The unique device, reaching wind speeds equivalent to those of Hurricane Katrina, is equipped with eight industrial fans powered by four marine diesel engines. The simulator is mounted on a trailer and will be used on vacant homes to test building products, urban landscapes, and anything else that might be affected during a storm.

The specifics:

The simulator is outfitted with eight five-foot-tall industrial fans, each weighing approximately 1,200 pounds and stacked in two rows. The fans will be powered by four 700-horsepower marine diesel engines, a type of boat engine. The transfer of power from the engines to the fans is controlled by an innovative hydraulic drive system designed by Linde Hydraulics Corporation and Cunningham Fluid Power. Once the engines are redlined, they turn a set of hydraulic pumps that drive fluid through the motors housed in the fans, which spins the fans, explains Masters.

The wind from the fans will pass through a custom-built duct that enables it to accelerate to the desired speed. At the end of the duct are rudders that allow the researchers to direct the wind. Inside the rudders is a water-injection system to simulate wind-driven rain.