DesignSafe Radio

Joe Wartman Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Washington  Principal Investigator, NHERI RAPID facility Wartman introduces his NSF-funded natural hazards reconnaissance facility, called the NHERI RAPID. He clarifies the term “RAPID” (in all caps), which is a kind of generic term (not an acronym) inherited from the National Science Foundation. The actual name of Wartman’...

University of Oklahoma earthquake engineer Scott Harvey is developing a base isolation system to protect valuable and sensitive contents inside buildings. He employed the shake table at the NHERI Lehigh University experimental facility to learn how his isolation system behaves under shaking. In his next experiments, Harvey will deploy the magic of real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) to numerically...

Protecting valuable equipment from earthquake damage Rolling base-isolation system keeps objects safe within data centers, hospitals, and museums. Scott Harvey, earthquake engineer from the University of Oklahoma, is developing a base-isolation system for protecting critical equipment and objects inside buildings: things such as data center computers, power systems, medical equipment -- even artwo...

We learn about the NHERI Graduate Student Council from its president Holly Davies.  GSC members are young researchers studying natural hazards in fields as diverse as engineering, social sciences, computer simulation, urban planning. Follow the GSC on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NheriGsc And on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ngsc/ Interested in joining NHERI’s Graduate Student Council? Vis...

Host Dan Zehner meets up with geotechnical engineer Brady Cox, professor of engineering at Utah State University and co-PI at the NHERI @ University of Texas mobile shaker facility. Cox introduces the UTexas mobile shakers, huge vehicles that simulate a range of ground motions for studying earthquakes. There’s “T-Rex,” perhaps the world’s only shaker capable of generating large dynamic forces in a...

Natural hazards engineers at the University of Texas are using fiber optic cable for subsurface and structural sensing. It’s called distributed acoustic sensing, or DAS, and it is much more efficient than traditional geophones or accelerometers. By sending laser light pulses through fiber optic cables — which are ultra-sensitive to light deflections — researchers can measure ground disturbances fo...

Here is natural hazards research that takes place outside the lab! Professor Brady Cox describes how engineers deploy the NHERI mobile shaker fleet around the world to study ground-based infrastructure like levees, soils that are prone to liquefaction, and civil structures like bridges.  Watch Brady Cox’s demonstration videos here: Subsurface geotechnical imaging, as with levees: click here  Testi...

On today’s show, we get an intro to the mobile shaker fleet at the NHERI’s University of Texas facility. Host Dan Zehner meets up with geotechnical engineer Brady Cox, professor of engineering at Utah State University and co-PI at the NHERI @ University of Texas mobile shaker facility. Cox introduces the UTexas mobile shakers, huge vehicles that simulate a range of ground motions for studying eart...

Enjoy our full interview with Elaina Sutley!

In this episode of DesignSafe Radio, structural engineer Elaina Sutley covers ways that research can tangibly improve resilience of manufactured homes. She discusses local amendments to building codes that cities can implement. Currently, she and her research team are studying mobile home parks and ways to reduce wind damage. She emphasizes that dealing with windstorms is more than a building desi...

Sutley explains differences between manufactured homes and site-built homes and why there is so little crossover in design provisions. She also refutes the primary objection to improving performance manufactured homes: If we improve performance, they won’t be affordable. Additionally, Sutley describes how researchers can use publicly available data to deepen their wind disaster investigations when...

It’s no secret: tornadoes and hurricanes wreak havoc on manufactured homes. So why don’t we build them stronger? To detail the challenges to improving their performance we have Elaina Sutley, associate professor of structural engineering at the University of Kansas. With an interdisciplinary engineering and social science focus, Sutley examines disparities when it comes to communities recovering f...

If you have not been able to catch our most recent episodes with Jason DeJong, listen to this episode for his full interview. Jason DeJong is a professor of engineering at UC Davis and is the head of the Center for Biomediated and Bioinspired Geotechnics (CBBG) team at UC Davis.  More information on NHERI at UC Davis Jason DeJong  “That proportional scale is amazing. We can simulate real-world sys...

Snake skin, tree roots, and nitrogen-burping microbes! In our third episode on biogeotechnics, Jason DeJong discusses a few of the wild-sounding research projects that focus on imitating or controlling natural processes — to create safer, and more efficient, infrastructure.   Researchers develop ideas the Center for Biomediated and Bioinspired Geotechnics (CBBG) , and they can test theirconcepts a...

In our second episode with natural hazards engineer Jason DeJong, we learn about biogeotechnics — a field that links biology and the natural world with engineering.  DeJong explains how researchers at NHERI UC Davis have learned to use bacteria to chemically bind sand particles and create high-strength soils — that are resistant to liquefaction. It’s called biomediated ground improvement. A relate...

On this episode, natural hazards Jason DeJong discusses the experimental centrifuges, including the giant nine-meter centrifuge, at the UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling, a NHERI facility. DeJong explains how rapidly spinning centrifuges create “hypergravity” — a force up to 200 Gs — to study how structures and soil withstand natural hazards.  Here’s how it works: researchers place a physi...

Don’t miss our full interview with Ian Robertson on today’s episode. We are discussing the NHERI Science Plan , a long-term guide to addressing gaps in natural hazards engineering research. Robertson explains this community-driven document and how it is evolving in the upcoming third edition to incorporate aspects of hazard simulation, modeling tools, and social science integration.  Download a co...

Ian Robertson discusses the third edition of the Science Plan, a living document for natural hazards to consult as they design their individual research projects. Version three of the NHERI Science Plan incorporates key uses of simulation and modeling tools, social science approaches such as policy and economics, as well as the NSF-funded Extreme Events Reconnaissance teams — who do field research...

In this episode, NHERI’s Ian Robertson discusses how natural hazards engineers quantify how well they are addressing the big problems, sometimes called “grand challenges.” For civil engineers, success is often measured by the incorporation of new designs into building codes. Robertson discusses the long-term processes for getting ideas for resilient structures into actual practice. For instance, t...

The NHERI Science Plan is a long-term guide to addressing gaps in natural hazards engineering research. NHERI’s Ian Robertson provides background on this community-driven document, its purpose, history and evolution. He reveals updates that will be included in the upcoming third edition, which will incorporate aspects of hazards simulation and social science integration. The Science Plan is an exc...

In our third and final episode with Lori Peek of the NHERI CONVERGE facility, we learn how to get involved in extreme events research (EER). Formal education or training is not required. Peek directs listeners to the CONVERGE website for details on the NSF-funded extreme events groups to see which appeal to you. You can join more than one.  The data collected by EER groups goes toward engineering...

In our second episode with Lori Peek of the NHERI CONVERGE facility, Peek discusses the social infrastructure that enables extreme events reconnaissance (EER) teams to work together on NSF-funded natural hazards research. She explains the NHERI Leadership Corps and how this coordinating group unites researchers from different disciplines — from engineers to social scientists to data scientists. Sh...

In this episode of DesignSafe Radio, host Dan Zehner interviews Lori Peek, principal investigator for the NHERI CONVERGE facility, based at the University of Colorado Boulder. Peek is also professor of sociology at UC Boulder and director of the Natural Hazards Center at UC Boulder. Peek explains how, within NHERI, CONVERGE represents the intersection of social science with engineering. For CONVER...

This episode is our full interview with NHERI REU students. The students are Adithya Salil Nair from the Ohio State University, Claire Sorensen from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and William Zakka from University of Texas Austin.  The full interview episode is also available on Youtube ! Related Links: NHERI REU Summer Program Information Meet the REU Students NHERI Simcenter

In our last episode featuring the 2021 SimCenter REU students, rising seniors Adithya, Claire and Will talk about applying to graduate programs — which will enable them to conduct more research. For each of them, the summer research experience with the NHERI SimCenter has encouraged them to pursue an advanced engineering degree. They discuss specific ways that undergraduates can discover research...