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I
don't know about you, but I prefer my applied sciences to be dramatic and full
of spectacle. Ideally, with pyrotechnics involved. I've spent a good part of my
career exploring various theoretical avenues regarding detonation and
deflagration, but always with a practical goal in mind: I want to see stuff
blowed up real good. So I was heartened to see this slight variation on the
theme: The Portable Hurricane Machine.
 I
realize this is a departure from our usual fare of gadgetry, but sometimes I
just get a yen for Big Science in action. It seems the guys down at the University of Florida have decided to stop monkeying
around and go macro on this hurricane-modeling thing. Rather than simulate
virtual storms on expensive supercomputing systems, they've gone out and built
an actual hurricane machine. This sort of practical, no-nonsense approach to
science must be admired.
The
massive hydraulic-based device includes four diesel engines and eight axial
fans mounted on a giant wheeled trailer for transport. The device can generate
130-mph wind speeds, with rain, and create 30-40 pounds per square foot of
dynamic pressure. It's designed to be wheeled out to real-world hurricane
danger zones for hands-on testing of building components and materials.
This
is no brute machine, either. It has some built-in IT elements to help it better
approximate likely hurricane conditions, including real-time transmission of
global weather data via a geostationary satellite link-up. Project manager
Forrest Masters said the machine's system of contraction ducts and rudders can
be calibrated to specifically simulate different types of hurricane conditions.
The testing information can then be used to develop building components for new
homes and commercial structures in hurricane-prone areas. "Every hurricane
has a unique identity and different parts of the coast have a particular
building stock," Masters said. "A Miami
home is not necessarily the type of home you will find in Biloxi, Mississippi."
Now,
I'm no expert, but it seems to me there's another potential application for
these kinds of systems. Why not build a few hundred of them, park them on Gulf Coast
beaches, and use them to actually fight
off incoming hurricanes? Wouldn't those haughty Category 3 storms be
surprised, when making landfall, to see a battery of hurricane machines staring
them down? Fight fire with fire, I always say. Or water with water. Whatever.
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