Wu receives Robert Scanlan Award from the American Association for Wind Engineering

By Peter Murphy

The award recognizes an outstanding doctoral thesis for its contributions to wind engineering. In his thesis, Nonlinear Bluff-Body Aerodynamics, Wu helps establish a better understanding of the wind induced effects on structures governed by the Navier-Stokes equations.

Bluff bodies governed by the Navier-Stokes equations, including structures like cable-supported bridges, stay cables, super-tall buildings and others, were not adequately represented by the conventional linear analysis framework. When oncoming winds meet these structures, they separate from the body. This shortcoming presents an issue for contemporary structures.

“Teng’s award recognizes his commitment to advancing the understanding of the impact of wind on bridges,” said Joseph Atkinson, professor and chair of the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, “his continued influence in bridge engineering enhances our department and in particular, our Institute of Bridge Engineering.”

The Robert Scanlan Award is presented every four years to a distinguished AAWE member for the best doctoral thesis related to advances in wind mechanics or wind-structure interactions.

Wu received the award at the 2017 Americas Conference on Wind Engineering on May 23, 2017, in Gainesville, F.L.

Three of Wu’s PhD students also presented papers at the event. They are Haifeng Wang, "Supergradient wind effects on tall buildings in the tropical cyclone-prone areas," Jinaming Hao, "Thunderstorm downburst effects on long-span bridges based on CFD-CSD approach,” and Reda Snaiki, "A new analytical rain field model during tropical cyclones."

This is the second award Wu has received from the AAWE. In 2014, he received the Best Paper Award.

Wu joined UB in 2014. His research addresses the effects of service and extreme winds on the built environment. His interests include wind effects on bridges (buffeting and flutter, vortex-induced vibration and rain-wind induced vibration), hurricane wind and rain hazards, non-synoptic (transient) winds, nonstationary analysis and synthesis, nonlinear aerodynamics, Volterra theory, reduced-order modeling, and computational fluid dynamics. He received his PhD from Notre Dame in 2013.