Performing storms: Simulated weather and National Bureau of Standards material tests

• In Event: Grasping at Science: Tire Reefs, Trees, Weather Simulations, and Milk Plastic

Abstract

In this paper I trace shifts in weather simulation tests by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) from the 1920s through the 1980s. Technicians working for the NBS designed and performed simulations of wind, rain, hail, and snow at various temporal scales in order to experience, visualize, and measure the degradation of building materials and construction systems under various weather conditions. They developed or adapted techniques such as real-time outdoor atmospheric exposure and machine-accelerated rain and wind simulation. Data from some of these weather simulations informed changes to regional building codes in the United States. In this paper I analyze NBS weather testing practices as a form of planned speculation about the future of built environments, with technicians responding to knowledge of past weather trends and expectations that those trends would remain indefinitely consistent into the future. I suggest ways that physical weather simulation for material testing has shifted in the twenty-first century to account for greater uncertainty.

Author

• Kristine Ericson, Yale University