The Australian Wind Engineering Society is responsible for the first comprehensive industry guidelines for full scale wind testing of building envelope components, created as a direct response to industry concerns about the rising risk of wind-induced incidents in the built environment.  

The 'Quality Assurance Manual: Full-Scale Wind Testing of Components of Building Envelopes and Architectural Features' provides essential guidelines to the practising construction industry professional on the conduct of full-scale wind testing and serves as a testing standard for such tests. 

With the capability to generate flow, velocities over 50m/s, the Insol Wind Tunnel is designed to fit large 1:1 scale models, testing for structural integrity and wind noise. It is the only facility in New Zealand with the capability for large-scale component testing to the requirements of AWES-QAM-2-2024. 

Computational models have limitations and are unable to predict some serviceability issues, for example the likelihood of facade elements producing wind-induced noise or vibration. As the built environment rises in height and wind dynamics become more complicated in urban centres, wind testing becomes essential. 

Any project which includes perforated screens, sliding screens or certain louvre configurations, placed in high wind environments, should be wind tested in order to mitigate risk. 

Dapple is the only range of perforated aluminium in New Zealand to be pre-tested for wind noise and able to satisfy the quality assurance requirements of AWES-QAM-2-2024.

All products in the dapple range may be specified and used without the need for further wind-testing. You can view the full range here.