Styrofoam pieces are spread loosely across an elevated platform while a large metal cylinder hovers overhead. A switch is flipped and the scraps are sucked into a swirling vortex, traveling back and forth across the platform with the movement of the cylindrical device.

Bill Rickard watches with pride.

Rickard, 53, is a native of Sioux City who has worked at Iowa State for 14 years. His last few years of employment, during which he has been a laboratory technician in Howe Hall, have provided him the opportunity to work with the tornado simulator used by the aerospace engineering department.

What is the tornado simulator and why is it special?

It’s a new design of a simulator. What we were after was several things. One of them was we wanted a larger simulator. The standard laboratory simulators have very small vortexes so it’s very difficult to get measurements and to use them for testing models and things. We wanted one that had a large enough workspace to test that we could actually test steel models of a good scale. And the other thing we were after, we wanted one that would translate across the groundplane, back and forth, which is a unique feature of this tornado simulator. So we’re actually able to put scale models of houses, 1:100 scale, and then we use various instrumentation, pressure taps, force transducers. And then we’re able to generate a vortex of a known specification and move it across the buildings and take measurements. So it’s fairly unique.

And you are involved in the maintenance and repair?

Yes. We had about three years of design – the professors and the grad students. We also had a lot of undergraduates involved. And then it took about six months to build it. It was myself and just undergraduates that built the whole thing. And I am responsible for maintenance on it, making sure it runs properly, keeping the gears greased.

It’s been running very smoothly, very few glitches. Haven’t had to do any modifications yet.

What is the most difficult thing about working with the simulator?

For me personally, it would be the math. I don’t have a background in aerospace engineering or in wind engineering, so I’ve been having to pick up a lot of information on the run. But the professors have been really good about giving me information in like a layman’s terms so that I can follow along.

Do you have schooling in another area?

Yeah, I have a degree in agronomy, of all things. I grew up in my dad’s shop. When I went to junior college and met a girl down there and her dad was a farmer, I went to school in agronomy thinking I was going to farm. Then when we got a divorce, I went back and worked for my dad. And then I ended up going back to school, but I ended up working in the engineering college in the shop. And then I ended up here.

The agronomy actually has come in handy because I have remembered quite a bit of my meteorology and climatology stuff from those days. Something I have learned has finally taken hold.

Have you ever seen a natural tornado?

Yes, I have. Once, when I was married on the farm, I saw one. I was out cultivating and it came up. They said later on in the news that it was like an F2, so it didn’t do any damage really. It was pretty spectacular.

[The simulator] is much safer, but it does resemble. I mean, if you see the videos that the news people take, it’s actually pretty frightening how, when you know how to take a picture, it looks pretty real.

What would be your course of action if you got stuck in the path of a tornado?

If I was stuck in the path, I’d try to find some sort of shelter. The thing I’ve been learning about tornadoes is that it’s really foolish to try to ride one out in an unprotected area. They are very powerful, very unpredictable.

Storm chasers are one thing, but people that deliberately say, ‘Well the tornado won’t bother my house,’ are being fool-hearted. We’ve had on occasion several people come in and talk to us about tornadoes. We’ve had guys who have chased storms showing us video and things. And now that we’ve started to collect data from this, these are very powerful things. It’s best just to avoid them.

What are your interests outside of the lab?

Well, I am an avid canoer. I do a lot of canoeing, camping, outdoor stuff. I also do a lot of woodworking. I’ve been remodeling my house and I have a shop at home, so I’ve been building my own furniture. I do a lot of fun things like that. I also read a lot, fiction and non-fiction. And I like live music, all kinds. Lately, I’ve been heavily into classical for some reason.

Do you have any good camping or outdoor stories?

My nephew and I were going down the Niobrara in Nebraska and we got chased down the river the last couple miles by a very, very severe thunderstorm. It had damaging wind and hail. We made it out to the truck just as the storm hit with the hail. That was pretty scary. There’s really no place to hide on a river. When you can see it coming at you, because that’s fairly wide open out there, and just knowing that it could be bad and seeing the wind off in the distance, that was a little frightening. But we made it.

What are your plans after you stop working here?

Probably going to try to do a lot of canoeing and camping places I haven’t been yet around the country. There’s a lot of places around the country I’d like to see. And then, you know, just concentrate on making things in the shop, doing cabinet work. I enjoy that a lot.