Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure: Experimental Facility with Twelve-Fan Wall of Wind 2021-2025

自然灾害工程研究基础设施（NHERI）由美国国家科学基金会（NSF）支持，作为一个分布式、多用户的国家设施，为自然灾害工程研究界提供研究基础设施，包括地震和风力工程实验设施、网络基础设施（CI）、计算建模和仿真工具、高性能计算资源和研究数据。以及教育和社区外展活动。NHERI最初由项目招标NSF 14-605和NSF 15-598资助，自2015年以来通过网络协调办公室，CI，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）的独立但协调的五年研究基础设施奖运作。有关NHERI资源的信息可在NHERI门户网站（https://www.DesignSafe-ci.org）获得。授予NHERI的奖项有助于NSF在国家减少地震灾害计划（NEHRP）和国家减少风暴影响计划（NWIRP）中发挥作用。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。该奖项将更新佛罗里达国际大学的NHERI 12扇风墙（WOW）实验设施，以支持2021年1月1日至2025年9月30日的风力工程研究和教育。WOW是一个具有尖端能力的大型风力模拟设施，包括对建筑系统、组件和其他结构进行大型和全面的风速测试，风速最高可达萨菲尔-辛普森飓风5级（157英里/小时及以上），并带有风力驱动的降雨选项。该设施将为全国各地的用户提供访问和专业知识，包括年度用户研讨会，以支持前沿研究和教育，通过推进知识和促进变革性减灾措施，防止风灾事件成为社区灾害。该设施将为来自美国学术机构的科学、技术、工程、数学和相关领域的K-12、本科生和研究生提供教育体验。教育活动将包括：(1)根据NHERI本科生研究经验计划，接待外部本科生进行实践培训；(2)促进以教促学，让研究生担任本科生的导师；(3)继续开展教师研究经验计划，让初中和高中教师与学生和设施工作人员合作，产生新知识并将其转化为课堂教材。该设施将有助于培养一个由学生、教师、教职员工和专业人士组成的多元化研究社区，共同应对国家与灾害相关的挑战，实现抗风社区。该设施将为风力工程提供独特的实验能力，这在其他美国大学中是不存在的。该设施拥有12个风扇，大风场横截面，降雨产生系统，以及用于大气边界层（ABL）模拟的自动流动调节粗糙度和尖塔，可以模拟各种暴露情况下的真实飓风风速。该设施的实验能力包括：(1)在高雷诺数（Re）下对模拟ABL流动进行高速整体全面和大规模测试，以最大限度地减少尺度误差；(2)系统级破坏性测试，研究组件和连接的渐进损伤和失效，以改进设计；(3)风力驱动降雨模拟，研究通过建筑围护结构的水入侵；(4)测试评估创新的减缓装置，以减弱风损伤和雨水入渗。最近，该设施扩展了其功能，包括下爆模拟、高Re下的全流场和流固相互作用表征。这些新功能将实现高保真度测量，为验证计算模拟提供实验数据，从而减少未来对物理测试的依赖。在该设施进行的研究将为改进当前的设计标准和实践提供新的知识。在该设施进行的研究中产生的实验数据将存档在NHERI网站门户的数据仓库中。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a distributed, multi-user national facility to provide the natural hazards engineering research community with access to research infrastructure that includes earthquake and wind engineering experimental facilities, cyberinfrastructure (CI), computational modeling and simulation tools, high performance computing resources, and research data, as well as education and community outreach activities. Originally funded under program solicitations NSF 14-605 and NSF 15-598, NHERI has operated since 2015 through separate, but coordinated, five-year research infrastructure awards for a Network Coordination Office, CI, Computational Modeling and Simulation Center, and Experimental Facilities, including a post-disaster, rapid response research facility. Information about NHERI resources is available at the NHERI web portal (https://www.DesignSafe-ci.org). Awards made for NHERI contribute to NSF's role in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP). 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 renew the NHERI Twelve-Fan Wall of Wind (WOW) Experimental Facility at Florida International University to support wind engineering research and education from January 1, 2021 to September 30, 2025. The WOW is a large wind simulation facility with cutting edge capabilities, including large- and full-scale testing of building systems, components, and other structures in wind speeds up to and including hurricane Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale (157 mph and above), with a wind-driven rain option. The facility will provide access and expertise to users across the nation, including annual user workshops, to support frontier research and education to prevent wind hazard events from becoming community disasters by advancing knowledge and fostering transformative mitigation measures. The facility will provide educational experiences for K-12, undergraduate, and graduate students in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and related fields from academic institutions across the U.S. Educational activities will include: (1) hosting external undergraduate students for hands-on training under the NHERI Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, (2) promoting learning-by-teaching with graduate students serving as mentors for the undergraduate students, and (3) continuing the Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program for middle and high school teachers to work with students and facility staff to generate new knowledge and translate it into classroom educational materials. The facility will help foster a diverse research community of students, teachers, faculty, and professionals to collectively address the nation’s hazard-related challenges and achieve wind-resilient communities.The facility will provide unique experimental capabilities for wind engineering that do not exist at other U.S. universities at comparable scale. With its twelve-fan, large wind field cross section, rain generation system, and automated flow conditioning roughness and spires for atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) simulation, the facility can simulate realistic hurricane wind speeds for various exposures. The facility's experimental capabilities include: (1) high-speed holistic full- and large-scale testing in simulated ABL flows at high Reynolds numbers (Re) to minimize scaling errors, (2) system-level destructive testing to study progressive damage and failure of components and connections to improve designs, (3) wind-driven rain simulations to study water intrusion through building envelopes, and (4) testing to assess innovative mitigation devices to attenuate wind damage and rain infiltration. Recently, the facility expanded its capabilities to include downburst simulation and whole-flow-field and fluid-structure interaction characterization at high Re. These new capabilities will enable high fidelity measurements to provide experimental data for validating computational simulations, thereby reducing future reliance on physical testing. Research conducted at the facility will provide new knowledge to improve current design standards and practices. Experimental data generated from research conducted at this facility will be archived in the Data Depot on the NHERI web portal.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.