Episodes
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Plans are afoot to build the world’s largest wind-wave research lab, capable of generating 200 MPH hurricane winds and 5-meter-high waves. This NSF-funded facility will enable full-scale investigations into structural and coastal resilience — and a secure future in the face of destructive natural hazards. On today’s show, Florida International University wind engineer Arindam Chowdhury joins us to describe this facility, the National Full-Scale Testing Infrastructure for Community Hardening in Extreme Wind, Surge, and Wave Events — or NICHE, for short.
About NICHE. The NICHE lab will have a 20-fan array capable of generating 200 MPH winds, that’s a Cat 6 hurricane — as well as generating transient winds like tornadoes and downbursts. NICHE’s enormous wind field will enable testing of full-scale two-story structures. It will have a 500-meter-long wave flume and be capable of generating five-meter-high waves. Significantly, the NICHE team is incorporating facility protocols for researchers to deliver expedient, real-world impact.
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Geotech engineer Diane Moug is an authority on microbially induced desaturation, known as “MID.” This technique, developed at Arizona State University, prevents soils from liquefying in an earthquake. Moug describes how microbes desaturate soils, the benefits of the process, and her own, ongoing experiments underway in the Pacific Northwest. These include a site in Oregon’s Critical Energy Infrastructure hub – which is dangerously situated on liquefiable soil.
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Obtaining an NSF CAREER Award is a milestone for academics in the sciences. Early-career geotechical engineer and researcher Diane Moug shares her experiences writing and applying for – and then (finally) successfully winning, a CAREER Award.
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The cone penetration test (CPT) is a standard tool for geotechnical engineers; it's used for measuring soil sheer strength, stress history and type. Leveraging her NSF CAREER award, Portland State U researcher Diane Moug plans to improve the CPT, so engineers can make better interpretations of CPT data. Moug will employ NHERI at UC Davis centrifuges, numerical modeling, and lab experimentation.
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CHEER researchers focus on understanding decision-making among all the players involved in sustaining a resilient coastal community. Davidson details how stakeholders – insurers, government agencies, and residents -- have different, reasonable, and conflicting goals. CHEER’s goal is to find policy solutions that will manage hazard risks as well as ensure economic development in coastal communities vulnerable to hurricanes. It’s a new approach to building a sustainable disaster risk management system in the U.S.
Subscribe to the CHEER newsletter https://www.drc.udel.edu/cheer-chronicle-announcement-june-2024/
Follow CHEER on LInkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/cheer-hub/posts/?feedView=all
CHEERHub website https://www.drc.udel.edu/cheer/
Read about the NHERI-CHEER partnership
https://www.designsafe-ci.org/community/news/2024/july/nheri-partners-cheer-hub-hurricane-decision-making-framework/
CHEERHub’s NSF award summary
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2209190&HistoricalAwards=false
Rachel Davidson is an accomplished academic and research engineer. Discover more about her career and work:
https://ccee.udel.edu/faculty/rachel-davidson/
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Working with the NHERI SimCenter and DesignSafe, the CHEER team is developing a software framework called Stakeholder-based Tool for the Analysis of Regional Risk, or STARR. STARR modeling extends regional loss models like R2D, INCORE, and Hazus to include a focus on decision making. STARR models describe the complex and often conflicting ways that stakeholders in vulnerable coastal areas make decisions. Stakeholders are households, insurers, and government agencies. If policies can account for positive outcomes for all stakeholders, they’re more likely to be implemented and sustained.
Learn more about the CHEERHub https://www.drc.udel.edu/cheer/
Read about the NHERI-CHEER partnership https://www.designsafe-ci.org/community/news/2024/july/nheri-partners-cheer-hub-hurricane-decision-making-framework/
HAZUS developed by FEMA
https://www.fema.gov/flood-maps/products-tools/hazus
INCORE developed by NIST
https://www.nist.gov/community-resilience/center-excellence
NHERI SimCenter R2D tool
https://simcenter.designsafe-ci.org/research-tools/r2dtool/
CHEERHub’s NSF award summary
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2209190&HistoricalAwards=false
CHEERHub on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/cheer-hub/posts/?feedView=all
Rachel Davidson is an accomplished academic and research engineer. Discover more about her career and work: https://ccee.udel.edu/faculty/rachel-davidson/
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Rachel Davidson is a research engineer at the University of Delaware and principal investigator for the “Coastal Hazards Equity, Economic Prosperity, and Resilience Hub,” or CHEERHub. The five-year, $16M, NSF-funded, multi-disciplinary research network is tackling the complexity of coastal resilience by focusing on stakeholder decision making. Davidson introduces CHEER and explains why so many good ideas for managing disaster risks do not get implemented.
Learn more about the CHEERHub https://www.drc.udel.edu/cheer/
Read about the NHERI-CHEER partnership
https://www.designsafe-ci.org/community/news/2024/july/nheri-partners-cheer-hub-hurricane-decision-making-framework/
CHEERHub’s NSF award summary
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2209190&HistoricalAwards=false
CHEERHub on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/cheer-hub/posts/?feedView=all
Rachel Davidson is an accomplished academic and research engineer. Discover more about her career and work:
https://ccee.udel.edu/faculty/rachel-davidson/
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Mentoring at UC Davis
How do geotech students gain experience? Laura Luna and José Luis Caisapanta discuss the UC Davis Geotechical Graduate Student Society, a nationally respected mentoring program. In an intentional “laddering” fashion, grad students new to the UC Davis program learn from more experienced grad students and – in turn – pass their knowledge to undergrads and K-12 students. Luna and Caisapanta share their experiences as members of the GGSS.
UC Davis GGSS website:
https://ggss.ucdavis.edu/
Geo-Institute winning video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=BUQo3zy_mTY
NHERI at UC Davis website:
https://ucdavis.designsafe-ci.org/
Center for Geotechnical modeling on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ucd-cgm/
Follow the Center for Geotechnical modeling on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=center%20for%20geotechnical%20modeling
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Civil engineering grad students from NHERI UC Davis join Dan Zehner to discuss research at the renowned Center for Geotechnical Modeling, a geotech lab equipped with a nine-meter centrifuge. Master’s student Jose Louis Caisapanta describes soil experiments with the centrifuge – which can deploy a shake table during its 50G spins. PhD student Laura Luna explains building physical models in the centrifuge. She uses resulting data to create a computer model that will predict soil behavior beneath a structure during an earthquake.
About the equipment and people at the NHERI UC Davis laboratory:
https://ucdavis.designsafe-ci.org/
Discover research, events, lab photos and more on the CGM Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063111107077
Follow NHERI UC Davis on Linked In:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ucd-cgm/
CGM Director Jason DeJong on DesignSafe Radio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlLTdPaOUFk
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In our final episode with FIU meteorologist Erik Salna, we learn about the Wall of Wind Challenge, an annual event for high school students. NHERI researchers provide a specific wind mitigation challenge. Student teams design and build a protective structure, and then get the chance to test their designs in the Wall of Wind. It’s an exciting competition, which is judged by engineers who are Wall of Wind alums! See below for links to the 2024 event and Salna’s template for conducting this popular STEM competition for high schools.
NHERI Wall of Wind website: https://fiu.designsafe-ci.org/
2024 Wall of Wind Challenge, cool video and the winning designs: https://www.designsafe-ci.org/community/news/2024/june/2024-wall-of-wind-mitigation-challenge-high-school-teams-design-test-productive-wind-barriers/
Overview of the WOW Challenge event for educators, including a technical library: https://www.ihrc.fiu.edu/outreach-education/wall-of-wind-challenge/
The NSF NICHE facility, the future of wind engineering at FIU: https://www.designsafe-ci.org/facilities/experimental/niche/
Follow the Wall of Wind on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FIUWOW
Follow Erik Salna on X
@ExtremeWxExp
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FIU-based meteorologist and educator Erik Salna relates some unusual but important WOW experiments to test the effects of wind loading on civil infrastructure such as construction cranes and electrical power towers. One unique project used flying debris in the wind tunnel to derive an algorithm for determining wind speeds in video captures.
Wall of Wind debris experiments to build an algorithm that will calculate wind speeds from social media-derived video: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2053935&HistoricalAwards=false
Research on transmission towers: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1751844&HistoricalAwards=false
Research on construction site equipment in windstorms: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1635378&HistoricalAwards=false
See the WOW in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkI0UjmFFDs
Visit the NSF-NHERI Wall of Wind website for details on research underway: https://fiu.designsafe-ci.org/
Follow FIU Extreme Events Institute on X: @FIUExtremeEvent Follow the Wall of Wind on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FIUWOW
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Meteorologist and educator Erik Salna provides nitty-gritty details on the gigantic, NSF-funded wind research lab called the Wall of Wind, or WOW. Located at Florida International University in Miami, the WOW facility is part of the NSF-funded NHERI network. Each of WOW’s 12-fans are six feet in diameter and weigh nearly 15,000 pounds. Powered up together, the 720HP electric motors can reproduce category 5 hurricane wind speeds, 157MPH.
See the WOW in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkI0UjmFFDs
Visit the NSF-NHERI Wall of Wind website for details on research underway: https://fiu.designsafe-ci.org/
Follow FIU Extreme Events Institute on X: @FIUExtremeEvent Follow the Wall of Wind on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FIUWOW
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UC Davis professor Alejandro Martínez is moving his bio-inspired snakeskin piles into industry practice. The novel pile-surface employs “frictional directionality” characteristic of snakeskin. Field trials provided better than expected results, and Martínez is now working to get his new design into the hands of practicing geotechnical engineers. Much of his NSF-supported research took place at the NHERI at UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling; the project is part of the NSF-funded Engineering Research Center, the Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics, CBBG, at Arizona State University.
Background info on Martínez’s snakeskin-inspired piles: https://www.designsafe-ci.org/community/news/2022/august/piles-inspired-snakeskin/
Learn more about the NSF-funded Engineering Research Center (ERC) called the Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics, CBBG, based at Arizona State University https://cbbg.engineering.asu.edu/
Engineering researchers use centrifugal force to study natural hazards at the NHERI at UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling facility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlLTdPaOUFk
Read up on Professor Martínez’s research at UC Davis: https://faculty.engineering.ucdavis.edu/martinez/
Follow Alejandro Martínez on X: @MartVAlejandro
Follow the NHERI Center for Geotechnical Modeling on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Center-for-Geotechnical-Modeling/10006311110707
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UC Davis professor Alejandro Martínez explains how biogeotechnical engineers leverage solutions from lifeforms like worms, trees, and bacteria. It starts with fundamental, cross-disciplinary work with biologists. Then, at the UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling (CGM), centrifuge tests fill an important gap between laboratory ideas and full-scale field tests. For instance, by replicating ground stress and increased gravity in a centrifuge, geotechs can model and test designs at greater soil depths and across soil types. The NHERI CGM facility functions as a testbed for the NSF-funded Engineering Research Center (ERC) called the Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics, CBBG, based at Arizona State University.
Read up on Professor Martínez’s research at UC Davis: https://faculty.engineering.ucdavis.edu/martinez/
Follow Alejandro Martínez on X: @MartVAlejandro
Background info on Martínez’s snakeskin-inspired piles: https://www.designsafe-ci.org/community/news/2022/august/piles-inspired-snakeskin/
Using centrifugal force to study natural hazards at the NHERI at UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlLTdPaOUFk
Follow the Center for Geotechnical Modeling on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Center-for-Geotechnical-Modeling/100063111107077/
Questions about NHERI or NHERI extreme events research? Contact us: [email protected]
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Geotechnical engineer Alejandro Martínez joins us to discuss a new and multidisciplinary engineering subfield called biogeotechnics. “Bioinspired” research examines and mimics ways that plants, animals and bacteria successfully interact with soil. For example: how tree roots successfully resist wind loads. “Biomediated” research uses biological elements to improve soil. For example, byproducts of certain bacteria can cement and desaturate soil — potentially preventing liquefaction in susceptible areas.
Read up on Professor Martínez’s research at UC Davis:
https://faculty.engineering.ucdavis.edu/martinez/Follow Alejandro Martínez on X: @MartVAlejandro
Background info on Martínez’s snakeskin-inspired piles:
https://www.designsafe-ci.org/community/news/2022/august/piles-inspired-snakeskin/Using centrifugal force to study natural hazards at the NHERI at UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlLTdPaOUFk
Follow the Center for Geotechnical Modeling on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/people/Center-for-Geotechnical-Modeling/100063111107077/
Questions about NHERI or NHERI extreme events research?
Contact us: [email protected]Keywords: biocementation, biodesaturation, liquefaction, biogeotechnics, geotechnical engineering, ground improvement, soil improvement
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Meet Nurullah Bektaş, engineering PhD candidate and research chair with the NHERI Graduate Student Council. He talks with Dan Zehner about the virtual GSC Mini Conference, slated for May 31, 2024. Bektaş, who is earning his PhD from Széchenyi István University in Hungary, encourages grad students in natural hazards get involved in sharing research and conducting post-event reconnaissance. He relates his own field experience helping householders in Turkey after the devastating 2023 earthquake series in Turkey and Syria.
Find out about the GSC Mini Conference: https://bit.ly/2024NHERIGSCMiniConference
Get details about the NHERI Graduate Student Council: https://www.designsafe-ci.org/learning-center/nheri-graduate-student-council/
Bektaş is involved with StEER, the NSF-funded Structural Extreme Event Reconnaissance team:
https://www.steer.network/
Bektaş worked with the UK-based group EEFIT, Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team, when conducting field work in Turkey:
https://www.istructe.org/get-involved/supported-organisations/eefit/
For post-event debris management, Bektaş mentioned another NSF-funded extreme event group, SUstainable Material Management Extreme Events Reconnaissance, SUMMEER:
http://summeer.org/
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Episode 3: Sustainable Functional Recovery: A New Engineering Design Paradigm
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.
Find out the Tallwood Design Institute, a collaboration between Oregon State University and the University of Oregon: https://tallwoodinstitute.org/
Get background info on the multi-institutional NHERI Converging Design project: https://tallwoodinstitute.org/converging-design-home-5663/
Read up on Professor Barbosa’s research at Oregon State University: https://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~barbosa/
The NHERI at UC San Diego shake table, LHPOST6, is the world’s largest outdoor shake table: https://ucsd.designsafe-ci.org/
Follow Dr. Barbosa on X: @BarbosaRDGroup
Collaborative Research: Converging Design Methodology: Multi-objective Optimization of Resilient Structural Spines NSF Award #2120683 https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2120683&HistoricalAwards=false
Questions about NHERI or NHERI extreme events research? Contact us: [email protected].
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Episode 2. Shake-Table Testing Earthquake-Resistant Building Components
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.
Get background info on the multi-institutional NHERI Converging Design project: https://tallwoodinstitute.org/converging-design-home-5663/
Read up on Professor Barbosa’s research at Oregon State University: https://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~barbosa/
The NHERI at UC San Diego shake table, LHPOST6, is the world’s largest outdoor shake table: https://ucsd.designsafe-ci.org/
Follow Dr. Barbosa on X: @BarbosaRDGroup
Questions about NHERI or NHERI extreme events research? Contact us: [email protected].
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Andre Barbosa
Professor, Structural Engineering
Oregon State University
Episode 1. 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.
Get background info on the multi-institutional NHERI Converging Design project: https://tallwoodinstitute.org/converging-design-home-5663/
Read up on Professor Barbosa’s research at OSU: https://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~barbosa/
The NHERI at UC San Diego shake table, LHPOST6, is the world’s largest outdoor shake table: https://ucsd.designsafe-ci.org/
Follow Dr. Barbosa on X: @BarbosaRDGroup
Questions about NHERI or NHERI extreme events research? Contact us: [email protected].
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Alia Amer
Postdoctoral Researcher
NHERI Lehigh Facility
ATLASS Research Center
Lehigh University
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.
Lehigh website: https://lehigh.designsafe-ci.org/facility/overview/ Follow NHERI Lehigh on X: https://twitter.com/NHERILehighRTMD
Read more about Alia Amer, PhD, an up-and-coming researcher in the field of natural hazards engineering and resilience: https://www.designsafe-ci.org/community/news/2023/november/researcher-alia-amer-is-all-about-resilience-large-scale-structures/
Questions about NHERI or NHERI extreme events research? Contact us: [email protected].
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