The novel Converging Design research project merges post-earthquake functional recovery with sustainability. Project PI Andre Barbosa discusses potential results from this effort, such as building code updates and new building products. Other tangible outcomes: successful industry-academia partnerships — and a cohort of engineering students who will take lessons about _sustainable functional recovery_ into the future. Barbosa welcomes individuals curious about sustainable design to contact or...

Earthquake engineer Andre Barbosa joins us to describe the fascinating NHERI Converging Design project, currently testing earthquake-resilient building components on the NHERI at UC San Diego shake table. Barbosa describes U-shaped flexural plates (UFPs), which can deform and dissipate energy – and with post-tensioning rods, recenter. Also, the team is testing buckling restrained braces, which function like replaceable “structural fuses.” Lastly, the project is examining traditional steel...

The NHERI Converging Design project merges functional recovery with sustainability. Project PI Andre Barbosa of Oregon State University joins us to discuss how the shake table experiments at UC San Diego shake table will lead to improved building codes in seismically vulnerable zones like the Pacific Northwest.

Hybrid simulation at Lehigh tests structural resilience In our second episode with NHERI Lehigh engineer Alia Amer, find out how this engineering lab performs real-time hybrid simulation, RTHS. This sophisticated, cost-effective testing method connects a numeric model of a substructure — with a physical model or device. Then researchers apply a natural hazard – wind, earthquake or waves – to test device resilience.

Research engineer Alia Amer gives us an overview of ATLSS research center, core of the NHERI facility at Lehigh University. Amer shows examples of complex, large-scale tests – multi-hazard simulations – at Lehigh. The lab designs accurate, complete simulations, including soil-structure-interactions, of natural hazard events such as earthquakes and windstorms. Dynamic, quasi-static, and hybrid simulations!

Nicos Makris explains his innovative protective damper system made with pressurized sand, which obviates problems presented by traditional dampers that use oil. In partnership with the NHERI Lehigh experimental facility, Makris is performing component testing and developing the numerical model in preparation for hybrid simulation testing, also at Lehigh. The cyber-physical tests allow researchers great flexibility when developing large-scale engineering devices.

Earthquake engineer Nicos Makris joins us to discuss protective dampers, large-scale devices that function like shock absorbers for buildings and bridges. Dampers built into a structure absorb and isolate earthquake, wind, and traffic vibrations. Prof Makris reveals a new type of damper he’s designed that uses pressurized sand to address hydraulic failures in oil-based dampers.

Acaba de publicarse la 3ª edición del Plan Científico del NHERI. Esta completa guía de investigación de 130 páginas describe las formas en que los investigadores pueden utilizar las instalaciones financiadas por la NSF para estudiar los daños causados por los peligros naturales y su prevención. El autor principal, Ian Robertson, ingeniero de investigación de la Universidad de Hawai, ofrece una visión general de esta valiosa obra de referencia.

Editor Ian Robertson provides details on using the NHERI Science Plan, Third Edition, as a practical guide to successful civil engineering research, including technology transfer and interdisciplinary research tea

Ways to leverage NSF-funded facilities in natural hazards research Just released: the NHERI Science Plan, 3rd Edition! This comprehensive, 130-page research guide outlines ways researchers can use NSF-funded facilities to study natural hazards damage and prevention. With lead author Ian Robertson, research engineer with the University of Hawaii.

Understanding the behavior of coastal systems requires specialized researchers, including engineers, to instrument shorelines before a major storm — and to collect and analyze the resulting data. Woods Hole scientist Britt Raubenheimer reiterates the vital importance of federal funding, including NSF funding, which allows for multidisciplinary teams like NEER to perform nested, coordinated reconnaissance missions with NHERI engineers and agencies like USGS and NOAA.

Coastal scientist Britt Raubenheimer describes NEER’s data reconnaissance missions before, during, and after Hurricane Laura, which struck southwestern Louisiana in 2020. NEER data revealed that breakwater structures could slow storm-surge inundation – but then they would also retain floodwaters passing through it, significantly slowing recovery of the shoreland marsh.

Woods Hole scientist Britt Raubenheimer talks with host Dan Zehner about coastal resiliency. Raubenheimer is principal investigator for NSF-funded Nearshore Extreme Event Reconnaissance team, NEER. NEER deploys multi-disciplinary researchers to collect data on nearshore systems before, during and after extreme events. She discusses the 2020 NEER mission during Hurricane Laura – which made useful discoveries about the efficacy of breakwater structures in the Delta marshlands.

Episode 3: A new experimental facility for simulating windstorms The National Science Foundation is funding a new, multihazard experimental facility called “NICHE,” still in the planning stages. As a co-principal investigator, Frank Lombardo is to helping to design methods for re-creating non-synoptic winds and wind profiles — storms of short duration and limited in space, like thunderstorms, derechos, and tornadoes.

Although dust devils can provide clues to tornado winds, U of Illinois wind engineer Frank Lombardo says tornadic behavior is still largely a mystery – and a bigger risk than researchers previously thought. He details ways wind engineers are piecing together answers, including simulations and damage surveys. Although dust devils can provide clues to tornado winds, U of Illinois wind engineer Frank Lombardo says tornadic behavior is still largely a mystery – and a bigger risk than...

Dust devils! Understanding how these short-lived whirlwinds behave may help wind engineers understand tornadoes. In field studies, U of Illinois wind engineer Frank Lombardo collects data on dust devils, which occur more frequently – and are easier (and safer) to capture – than their high-powered relatives. Lombardo’s team has recorded more than 50 of these brief, 45 MPH windstorms. Find out how, where, and what the data show.

Wind engineer Pedro Fernández-Cabán conducts experiments at the NHERI University of Florida wind tunnel, trying to discover how to prevent roof failure in low-rise buildings during hurricanes.

In this episode, Pedro Fernández-Cabán describes specific ways roofs can be altered to redirect windflow and reduce suction pressure – and roof damage. Parapets, for instance. Another goal for his project: use the UF Flow Field Modulator to develop a roadmap for wind conditions, revealing how different locations are subject to specific sorts of damaging wind fields – and to provide mitigation advice to builders and homeowners based on that roadmap.

Episode 1: Designing roofs to resist hurricane winds Wind engineer Pedro Fernández-Cabán conducts experiments at the NHERI University of Florida wind tunnel, trying to discover how to prevent roof failure in low-rise buildings during hurricanes. In this episode he describes how he uses a special component of the UF wind tunnel that creates large and long-lasting wind gusts: the Flow Field Modulator.

StEER’s Stephanie Pilkington covers virtual damage assessments, travel and data-sharing logistics, and the business of deciding the types of damage data to collect. Field-mission complexities include coordinating w/local authorities and EM teams – and federal agencies like FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers, and in the case of hurricanes, NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).

Engineer and UNC professor Stephanie Pilkington introduces the StEER network, a group of volunteer experts who perform post-event recon missions after extreme events like hurricanes and earthquakes. Learn about StEER data collecting and how you can get involved.

Reid Zimmerman, PE, SE Technical Director, KPFF Consulting Engineers Two approaches to engineering. For the NHERI Tallwood research project, practicing engineer Reid Zimmerman has been working with engineers in academia to produce a full-scale, 10-story wood building. The Tallwood structure is an experimental specimen that also looks and functions like a “real,” engineer-designed building. In this episode, Zimmerman talks about working with fellow engineers in the “applied research” capacity.

NHERI Tallwood Megaproject: a research and industry partnership. DesignSafe Radio host Dan Zehner catches up with Jeff Berman, NHERI Tallwood co-PI and earthquake engineer from the University of Washington. Berman explains how “mega-projects” like Tallwood simply can’t be done without significant collaboration between academia and industry experts at companies such as Simpson Strong-Tie, Swinerton and others with expertise in building construction, engineering, and mass timber design.