DesignSafe Radio

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 t...

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 c...

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...

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 grou...

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...

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 relat...

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 o...

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,...

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.  ...

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 p...

Alia Amer Postdoctoral Researcher NHERI Lehigh Facility ATLASS Research Center Lehigh University   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,...

Makris episode 2 Testing novel pressurized sand dampers at NHERI Lehigh   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 simul...

Nicos Makris, Professor and Chair of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering Southern Methodist University   Makris episode 1   Dampers: shock absorbers for buildings 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,...

Este episodio se publicó originalmente en 7 nobiembre 2023.   Formas de aprovechar las instalaciones financiadas por la NSF en la investigación sobre riesgos naturales   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 estudi...

Special Episode 2 November 13, 2023 SCIENCE PLAN SPECIAL EPISODE: Moving civil engineering research into practice   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 teams.   NEW in the third edition: · NHERI SimCenter simulation software f...

SPECIAL EPISODE! Introducing the NHERI Science Plan, Third Edition 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 Unive...

Episode 3 Understanding major storms: key to coastal resilience   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 multid...

Britt Raubenheimer, PhD Senior Scientist, Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Principal Investigator, Nearshore Extreme Event Reconnaissance team, NEER     Episode 2 NEER: Nearshore breakwaters and unintended consequences   Coastal scientist Britt Raubenheimer describes NEER’s data reconnaissance missions before, during, and after Hurricane Laura, which struc...

Britt Raubenheimer, PhD Senior Scientist, Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Principal Investigator, Nearshore Extreme Event Reconnaissance team, NEER   NEER: Improving resilience of the nearshore during extreme events Woods Hole scientist Britt Raubenheimer talks with host Dan Zehner about coastal resiliency. Raubenheimer is principal investigator for NSF-f...

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, dere...

Episode 2: Triangulating clues to 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.   Wind Engineering Research Lab, University...

Episode 1: Wind engineers hunt dust devils   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 t...

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. See it in action: a cell from the Flow Field Modul...

Episode 2: Wind tunnel research to protect low-rise buildings from hurricane winds   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 a...