Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure: Experimental Facility with Geotechnical Centrifuges

自然灾害工程研究基础设施（NHERI）将得到美国国家科学基金会（NSF）的支持，作为一个分布式、多用户的国家设施，它将为自然灾害研究社区提供研究基础设施，包括地震和风力工程实验设施、网络基础设施、计算建模和模拟工具、研究数据，以及教育和社区外展活动。NHERI将由网络协调办公室、网络基础设施、计算建模和仿真中心以及实验设施（包括灾后快速反应研究设施）组成。NHERI获得的奖金将有助于NSF在国家减少地震灾害计划（NEHRP）和国家减少风暴影响计划中的作用。NHERI延续了NSF对地震工程研究基础设施的重视，此前，作为NEHRP的一部分，由小乔治·e·布朗地震工程模拟网络支持，但现在扩大了对风力工程研究基础设施的支持。NHERI的广泛目标是支持研究，以提高民用基础设施（如建筑物和其他结构、地下结构、堤坝和关键生命线）抵御地震和风暴等自然灾害的弹性和可持续性，以减少生命损失、损害和经济损失。有关NHERI资源的信息将在DesignSafe-ci.org门户网站上提供。NHERI实验设施将为nsf支持的研究和教育奖励提供对其实验资源、用户服务和数据管理基础设施的访问。该合同将支持位于加州大学戴维斯分校岩土建模中心的NHERI实验设施，为用户提供岩土建模资源，包括9米和1米半径的离心机，都带有振动台。离心机可以使用缩小比例的模型来准确地捕捉土体的响应，即使是在最大的振动台上，土体的响应也比全尺寸大很多倍。这台9米长的离心机是世界上具有振动台的离心机中半径最大的，可以携带1550公斤的土壤有效载荷。在配备大量传感器的详细、缩小比例的模型上进行实验，将使广泛的土壤和土壤结构系统取得重大的科学和工程进展，如建筑基础、桥梁基础、近岸和近海能源基础设施基础、地下结构、管道、地面改善技术、码头、堤坝和堤防系统。可以进行的研究将使工程师在预测和改善受地震、波浪、风和风暴潮载荷影响的土壤和土壤结构系统的性能方面取得重大进展。该设施的广大用户所进行的研究将有助于提高美国的经济竞争力，改善基础设施管理，并通过修改建筑规范、新的抗震设计标准和主要基础设施系统的合作项目来改善公民的福祉。9米和1米半径的土工离心机将共同提供独特和通用的建模能力，以实现预测和改善受自然灾害载荷影响的土壤和土壤结构系统的性能方面的重大科学和工程进展。离心机设施的现有资源将提供构建具有整体系统复杂性水平的土壤和土壤结构模型的能力，并通过对密集仪器阵列数据的反向分析获得复杂局部机制的测量结果。离心机设施将使基础科学知识的形成；从部件级到整体系统级的高级计算模型验证；验证变革性缓解战略；将研究、教育和拓展活动结合起来，培训多样化的劳动力。该设施将举办年度用户研讨会，并将为本科生举办研究体验。该设施的用户支持将包括以下内容：(1)通过在研究的提案、设计、构建、测试和解释阶段提供个性化指导和支持，帮助用户改进他们的实验调查；(2)保持并行和不间断的工作流程，最大限度地提高调度灵活性；（三）维护、改进和开发设施的技术资源；(4)将安全和风险意识融入日常操作实践；(5)提供网络安全和数据管理；(6)对科研团队成员进行指导和技术培训；(7)向主要兴趣群体提供研究机会，以扩大和多样化用户群；(8)管理维护周期，避免影响用户计划；(9)与国内和国际危害研究界开展重点活动。

The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) will be supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a distributed, multi-user national facility that will provide the natural hazards research community with access to research infrastructure that will include earthquake and wind engineering experimental facilities, cyberinfrastructure, computational modeling and simulation tools, and research data, as well as education and community outreach activities. NHERI will be comprised of separate awards for a Network Coordination Office, Cyberinfrastructure, Computational Modeling and Simulation Center, and Experimental Facilities, including a post-disaster, rapid response research facility. Awards made for NHERI will contribute to NSF's role in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program. NHERI continues NSF's emphasis on earthquake engineering research infrastructure previously supported under the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation as part of NEHRP, but now broadens that support to include wind engineering research infrastructure. NHERI has the broad goal of supporting research that will improve the resilience and sustainability of civil infrastructure, such as buildings and other structures, underground structures, levees, and critical lifelines, against the natural hazards of earthquakes and windstorms, in order to reduce loss of life, damage, and economic loss. Information about NHERI resources will be available at the DesignSafe-ci.org web portal. NHERI Experimental Facilities will provide access to their experimental resources, user services, and data management infrastructure for NSF-supported research and education awards. This award will support a NHERI Experimental Facility, located at the Center for Geotechnical Modeling, University of California at Davis, to provide users with access to geotechnical modeling resources that include 9-meter and 1-meter radius centrifuges, both with shake tables. Centrifuges enable the use of reduced-scale models to accurately capture the responses of soil masses that are many times larger than is possible at full scale on even the largest shake tables. The 9-meter centrifuge has the largest radius of any centrifuge with a shake table worldwide, and can carry a soil payload of 1550 kilograms. Performing experiments on detailed, reduced-scale models, outfitted with large numbers of sensors, will enable major scientific and engineering advances for a broad range of soil and soil-structure systems, such as building foundations, bridge foundations, near-shore and off-shore energy infrastructure foundations, underground structures, pipelines, ground improvement technologies, wharves, embankment dams, and levee systems. Research can be performed that will enable major advances in the ability of engineers to predict and improve the performance of soil and soil-structure systems affected by earthquake, wave, wind, and storm surge loadings. Research performed by the facility's broad base of users will contribute to the economic competiveness of the United States, better infrastructure management, and improved well-being of citizens through, for example, modified building codes, new seismic design criteria, and partnering projects for major infrastructure systems.Together, the 9-meter and 1-meter radius geotechnical centrifuges will provide the unique and versatile modeling capabilities required for realizing major scientific and engineering advances in predicting and improving the performance of soil and soil-structure systems affected by natural hazard loadings. Available resources at the centrifuge facility will provide the capability to construct soil and soil-structure models with holistic system levels of complexity and obtain measurements of complex local mechanisms through inverse analyses of data from dense instrumentation arrays. The centrifuge facility will enable the formation of basic science knowledge; the validation of advanced computational models from the component to holistic system level; the validation of transformative mitigation strategies; and the integration of research, education, and outreach activities in the training of a diverse workforce. The facility will conduct annual user workshops and will host Research Experiences for Undergraduate students. The facility's user support will include the following: (1) help users improve their experimental investigations through personalized guidance and support at the proposal, design, construction, testing, and interpretation phases of their research; (2) maintain a parallel and uninterrupted workflow that maximizes scheduling flexibility; (3) maintain, improve, and develop technical resources for the facility; (4) integrate safety and risk awareness into routine operational practices; (5) provide cybersecurity and data management; (6) provide mentoring and technical training for research team members; (7) promote research opportunities to key interest groups to broaden and diversify the user base; (8) manage maintenance cycles to avoid impacting user schedules; and (9) engage in key activities with the national and international hazards research communities.