Hurricane Wind Simulation and Testing to Develop Damage Mitigation Techniques

该研究项目的第一个目标是模拟飓风效应，以全面研究飓风与建筑物的相互作用，促进更好地了解风、雨和碎片在空间和时间尺度上对建筑环境的综合影响。第二个目标是使用高性能纤维复合材料开发一种新颖的、具有成本效益的、轻质的、坚固的、可延展的和非侵入式的屋顶到墙壁连接系统，以提高住宅建筑的抗飓风能力。 过去几年的飓风造成了巨大的人员和财政损失。数千人丧生，价值数十亿美元的财产被毁。更重要的是，公众对建筑环境的有效性及其抵御自然残酷力量的能力的信念已经破灭。工程结构很容易受到飓风引起的风、雨和碎片的破坏，尽管对这些综合影响还没有很好的了解。这些极端风力事件造成的破坏凸显了沿海住宅建筑固有的弱点，并强调了改善其结构性能的必要性。 这项工作涉及飓风研究的两个高度优先领域，即“影响和相互作用”和“备灾和建设抗灾能力”，这是国家统计局（2006年）的建议。这项研究将通过捕捉一些复杂的流动分离、涡流产生和再附着现象及其对用真实的材料建造的结构和部件的影响，推进有关飓风-结构相互作用的全面知识。将研究飓风、雨水和碎片的综合影响，以评估多目标系统性能，通过基于性能的工程来改善安全和可用性条件。这项工作将整合飓风研究的两个非常重要的方面，并解决国家对了解极端风暴对结构的影响和提高沿海建筑（包括新建筑以及旧建筑改造）弹性的需求。该团队在风-结构相互作用和高性能复合材料方面的专业知识以及可用于全尺寸测试的资源将有助于实现研究目标。通过将研究的各个方面分配给本科生和研究生作为高级设计，硕士和博士课题，将实现该研究项目与教育的整合。 将举行有学生和工业界参与的风墙竞赛，以集思广益和测试创新的减缓概念，从而将技术从学术界转移到现场应用。这些活动将有助于培养一支训练有素的学生和具有所需专门知识的专业人员队伍。在校学生的研究成果将对吸引更多妇女参与研究产生积极影响。Wall of Wind将作为一个多用户研究设施，为土木、建筑和施工等各个学科提供服务。PI将寻求与美国和国外的其他大学合作。风之墙将成为工程课程实验室的所在地，这将为指导多学科学生创造一个氛围。研究结果将通过同行评审的期刊和会议出版物广泛传播，并向决策者和建筑规范委员会提交报告，以改进现行标准。预计这项研究将通过开发飓风减灾技术使整个社会受益，这些技术将导致人类安全，减少财产损失，降低保险成本，并发展对自然灾害的“备灾文化”。

The first objective of this research project is to simulate hurricane effects to study hurricane-structure interaction in full-scale, facilitating better understanding of the combined impacts of wind, rain and debris on the built environment at spatial and temporal scales. The second objective is to develop a novel, cost-effective, light, strong, ductile, and non-intrusive roof-to-wall connection system using high performance fiber composite materials, to improve hurricane resiliency of residential buildings. The human and financial toll from hurricanes of the last few years has been immense. Thousands of lives have been lost and billions of dollars worth of property have been destroyed. More importantly, the public's belief in the effectiveness of its built environment and its ability to withstand the brutal forces of nature has been shattered. Engineered structures are vulnerable to damage from hurricane induced wind, rain and debris, though the combined impacts are not well understood. Damages during these extreme wind events highlight the weaknesses inherent in coastal residential building construction and underscore the need for improving their structural performance. This work addresses two high priority areas for hurricane research, namely, "Impacts and Interactions" and "Preparedness and Building Resiliency", as recommended by the NSB (2006). The research will advance knowledge pertaining to hurricane-structure interaction in full-scale by capturing some of the intricate flow separation, vortex generation, and re-attachment phenomena and their effects on structures and components built with real materials. Combined effects of hurricane wind, rain and debris will be studied to assess the multi-objective system performance to improve safety and serviceability conditions through performance-based engineering. The work will integrate two very important aspects of hurricane research and address the Nation's need for understanding extreme windstorm effects on structures and improving the resiliency of coastal construction (including new construction as well as retrofitting of old construction) in a similar way that the automobile industry tackled the crash worthiness issue or the earthquake engineering community approached building safety. The team's expertise in wind-structural interaction and high performance composites and the available resources for full-scale testing will help to achieve the research goals.Integration of this research project with education will be accomplished by assigning various aspects of the research to undergraduate and graduate students as senior-design, masters, and doctoral topics. Wall of Wind Contests, with student and industry participations, will be held to brainstorm and test innovative mitigation concepts, thus transferring the technology from academia to field applications. These activities will help in developing a trained workforce of students and professionals with needed expertise. Research accomplishments by current students will make a positive impact in bringing more women as research participants. Wall of Wind will act as a multi-user research facility and serve various disciplines such as Civil, Architectural, and Construction. PIs will seek to collaborate with other universities in the US and abroad. Wall of Wind will be home to a laboratory for engineering coursework which will create an atmosphere for mentoring multi-disciplinary students. Research results will be disseminated widely through peer-reviewed journal and conference publications, and reports to policy makers and building code committees to improve current standards. The research is expected to benefit society as a whole by developing hurricane mitigation techniques that will lead to human safety, property loss reduction, insurance cost reduction, and develop a "culture of preparedness" to natural disasters.