CAREER: Transitional Bridging: From Rapidly Deployable Disaster Relief to Permanent Infrastructure Solutions

该学院早期职业发展（CAREER）计划奖的研究目标是建立一个过渡性桥梁的理论框架-桥梁可以快速部署用于立即救灾，并可以就地转换为更高的负载能力，以支持长期的可持续发展。在自然和人为灾害发生后，可快速部署的桥梁对于恢复重要的交通干线至关重要。2010年智利地震和海啸后的漫长恢复时间表明，需要有既能立即作出反应，又能作为永久性基础设施的桥接解决方案。为此，该项目将测试这样的假设：新型可调节连接件可以通过实现多种结构形式来提高快速架设桥梁系统的效率，从而可以使用更少的材料更有效地承载载荷。该研究计划还将测试新的可调节模块可以提供过渡能力的假设。将通过数值和实验验证集成了可调节连接和模块的过渡桥接框架的效率。通过与领先的设计公司合作，将这项研究的结果转化为工业。结合这一研究目标，教育目标包括：（1）培养桥梁工程和可展开结构的下一代研究人员和设计师;（2）增加妇女在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的参与和保留。首席研究员（PI）计划开发一个新的，跨学科的，共同授课的救灾部署结构课程的本科生以及研究生课程在工程学院和艺术学院的信件。PI还计划与当地一所高中合作，实施“桥梁（建立关系，鼓励和推动女孩追求工程和科学）：为年轻妇女创造一个丰富的环境”。

The research objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award is to build a theoretical framework for transitional bridging - bridges that can be rapidly deployed for immediate disaster relief and can be transformed in-situ for higher load capacity to support long-term, sustainable development. Following natural and anthropogenic hazards, rapidly deployable bridges are critical to restoring vital transportation arteries. The long recovery times following the 2010 Chile earthquake and tsunami demonstrate the need for bridging solutions that can provide an immediate response but also serve as permanent infrastructure. To this end, the project will test the hypothesis that novel adjustable connections can increase efficiency of rapidly erectable bridging systems by enabling a diversity of structural forms which can more effectively carry load using less material. The research plan will also test the hypothesis that novel adjustable modules can provide transitional capabilities. The efficiency of the transitional bridging framework which integrates the adjustable connections and modules will be verified numerically and experimentally.The results of this research will be translated to industry through collaboration with a leading design firm. Integrated with this research objective, educational goals include (1) training the next generation of researchers and designers in bridge engineering and deployable structures and (2) increasing the participation and retention of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The Principal Investigator (PI) plans to develop a new, interdisciplinary, co-taught Deployable Structures for Disaster Relief course for undergraduate as well as graduate curricula in the College of Engineering and the College of Arts & Letters. The PI also plans to collaborate with a local high school to implement "BRIDGES (Building Relationships to Inspire and Drive Girls to pursue Engineering and Science): an enrichment environment for young women".