DesignSafe Radio Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure

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 visit to the Tallwood Design Institute, located on the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.

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 moment frames coupled with braced frames that include energy dissipating (“yielding”) fuse-like elements. These tests will guide the future of resilient structural design in earthquake-prone regions.

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.