SBIR Phase II: Telescopic Structural Flood Walls

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目旨在开发一种可伸缩的防洪结构墙并将其商业化。这项技术将使洪水易发地区的基础设施更具弹性。沿海城市和河流社区容易受到洪水的危害。这些人口中心往往位于水体附近，寻找容纳不断增长的人口的空间，以及抗灾的基础设施，对城市官员和工程界来说是一个挑战。这项技术的商业机会在于世界范围内日益增长的防洪需求。事实上，据世界银行估计，全世界每年将花费500亿美元来减轻这种危害。仅在美国，洪水被认为是最昂贵和最致命的自然灾害之一，估计每年造成79亿美元的损失和82人死亡。这项技术一旦开发出来，将为预制混凝土行业提供一个范式转变。它还将开发和验证结构元件伸缩互连的新方法。这个项目的智力优势在于一个独特的概念，由纤维增强混凝土制成的结构盒子可以伸缩地展开，以承受来自外部来源的力，然后返回到缩回的位置。在第一阶段，该概念的可行性通过样本承受三种具有目标市场代表性的洪水情景的能力来证明：河流、风暴潮和海啸。第二期项目将侧重于根据客户的引线现场评估墙体的技术特性。这些将包括墙的高度、土壤类型和危害评估，以及其他技术因素。将对墙壁的局部和整体结构反应及其机械部件的功能进行研究。将建立分析和数值模型，并通过对特定部件和全尺寸模型的测试进行验证。全尺寸的标本将经受风暴潮、飓风、海啸、缓慢上升的海水和冲击碎片的力量。将建立健全的理论框架，以及分析和数值模型和设计指南，以可靠地扩展和复制几乎任何需要防洪的地点的技术。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is aimed to develop and commercialize an extendable/retractable telescopic structural wall for flood protection. This technology will enable more resilient infrastructure in flood-prone areas. Coastal cities and riverine communities are vulnerable to flooding hazards. These population centers tend to be located near bodies of water, and finding the space to accommodate increasing populations, as well as hazard-resilient infrastructure, represents a challenge for city officials and the engineering community in general. The commercial opportunity of the technology lies on the increasing worldwide need for flood protection. In fact, the World Bank estimates that 50 billion dollars a year will be spent worldwide in measures to mitigate this hazard. In U.S. only, floods are considered one of the costliest and deadliest natural hazards with an estimated 7.9 billion dollars in damages and 82 fatalities per year. This technology, when developed, will provide a paradigm shift for the prefabricated concrete industry. It will also develop and validate new methods for telescopic interconnection of structural elements.The intellectual merit of this project lies in a unique concept where structural boxes, made out of fiber reinforced concrete, can be deployed telescopically to withstand forces imposed from external sources, and then return to a retracted position. In Phase I, the feasibility of the concept was demonstrated by the ability of specimens to withstand the forces from three flooding scenarios representative of the targeted market sector: riverine, storm-surges and tsunamis. The Phase II project will focus on assessing the technical features of the walls based on lead-off customer sites. These will include the height of the walls, type of soil, and the hazard assessment, among others technical factors. Studies will be conducted on the local and overall structural response of the walls and the functionality of their mechanical components. Analytical and numerical models will be built and validated with tests on specific components and on full-scale models. The full-scale specimens will be subjected to storm-surges, hurricane, tsunami, slow-rising waters, and impacting debris forces. Robust theoretical framework along with analytical and numerical models and design guidelines will be built to reliably scale and replicate the technology for virtually any site where flood protection is needed.