CAREER: Resiliency of Electric Power Networks under Wind Loads and Aging Effects through Risk-Informed Design and Assessment Strategies

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The objective of this Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award is to advance the scientific knowledge underlying the design and assessment of transmission line systems, with the goal of increasing the resiliency of electric power networks (EPNs) under windstorm and aging effects. The need for improving EPN resiliency is underscored by the surge in the extent and number of power outages due to the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as hurricanes and blizzards. The failure of aging EPN-supporting infrastructures, particularly during these weather events, can lead to widespread service disruptions, delays in emergency response, and significant economic losses. This research will have significant broader impacts on national prosperity and welfare, i.e., community and regional resiliency, as it will address the growing national need for the resilient design of critical civil infrastructures, such as EPNs, over their expected service life. The research will investigate the key attributes contributing to the resiliency of a transmission system within an EPN and will develop a robust, risk-informed design methodology to increase this resiliency. This will be achieved through a systematic incorporation of the physical performance assessment of individual transmission line components into a network-level functionality analysis. The project will include an integrated research and education plan, to train the next generation of natural hazards engineers and researchers, consisting of the following elements: (1) interactive educational components for high school students to foster their interest in the field of natural hazard engineering, (2) new curricula to prepare future engineers for the design and management of resilient infrastructures, (3) activities, including a multi-tiered mentoring program, to recruit and retain women and underrepresented minority students in the field of natural hazard engineering, and (4) university-industry partnerships to advise the research strategy and facilitate implementation of the research findings. Data from this project will be archived and shared in the NSF-supported Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) Data Depot (https://www.DesignSafe-ci.org). The research outcomes will foster a paradigm shift for the design of EPNs, which are recognized as one of the most critical spatially distributed infrastructure systems. With a multiple threat perspective (windstorm and aging effects), the project will contribute to enhancing the resiliency of EPNs at both component and system levels. This will be achieved by: (1) fundamental advances in high-fidelity computational models supported by large-scale experimental testing, (2) investigation of uncertainties associated with changes in loading demand (due to extreme weather events) and structural capacity (due to aging mechanisms), (3) characterization of cascading effects at multiple tiers from a component failure to a network outage, (4) development of metamodels for EPNs under regional natural hazards and environmental stressors, and (5) integration of a system reliability analysis into an optimization platform to capture the consequences of possible failures and adjust the design requirements accordingly. The project will use the NSF-supported NHERI Wall of Wind facility at Florida International University for the experimental work.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.