At 60ft tall, 27ft diameter and 75,000lbs, the tornado display is the largest effect in the hall. The 40ft vortex of swirling air and vapour rises continuously from the floor and is able to be controlled by guests through a series of dampers that shape the air column. From the balcony level, guests can activate lasers to cut through and reveal the airflow patterns of the illuminated vortex.
"One of the major challenges with the tornado exhibit was that we couldn't fully test it anywhere except at MSI because it was so big and so complicated," noted Wilson. "PRG had to get it fabricated and installed as early as possible so if there were any problems we would have time to correct them. They had to think carefully about how they were going to get the pieces into the building."
PRG also engineered and fabricated the avalanche disk, in which guests trigger a 20ft avalanche to reveal how granular materials behave and better understand how avalanches form. The avalanche takes place in a 20ft diameter disk set at a 23° angle to horizontal. When rotated by guests, they see how granular materials can act like a liquid as well as a solid, which is a key concept to understanding an avalanche.
"PRG's approach to the avalanche was a game changer for us. We were considering building the avalanche disk as a single piece. The concept of building it in small pieces, bringing it into the hall and assembling it, and then pouring a special urethane compound to make the final disk surface was all PRG's idea, and it was brilliant. It saved us a lot of time, a lot of money and it also allowed us to do a full test in their shop," said Wilson.
(Jim Evans)
