The numerical wind tunnel for industial aerodynamics: Real or virtual in the new milennium

Previous studies have shown that Computational Wind Engineering (CWE) is still in itsrninfancy and has a long way to go to become truly useful to the design practitioner. The present workrnfocuses on more recent studies to identify progress on outstanding issues and improvements in thernnumerical simulation of wind effects on buildings. The paper reviews wind loading and environmentalrneffects; it finds that, in spite of some interesting and visually impressive results produced with CWE, thernnumerical wind tunnel is still virtual rather than real and many more parallel studies - numerical andrnexperimental - will be required to increase the level of confidence in the computational results.