Wind speed inference from environmental flow–structure interactions

Graphical Abstract This study aims to leverage the relationship between fluid dynamic loading and resulting structural deformation to infer the incident flow speed from measurements of time-dependent structure kinematics. Wind tunnel studies are performed on cantilevered cylinders and trees. Tip deflections of the wind-loaded structures are captured in time series data, and a physical model of the relationship between force and deflection is applied to calculate the instantaneous wind speed normalized with respect to a known reference wind speed. Wind speeds inferred from visual measurements showed consistent agreement with ground truth anemometer measurements for different cylinder and tree configurations. These results suggest an approach for non-intrusive, quantitative flow velocimetry that eliminates the need to directly visualize or instrument the flow itself.