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（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NSF 14-605和NSF 15-598项目资助，自2015年以来，NHERI一直通过单独但协调的五年研究基础设施奖项为网络协调办公室，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。有关NHERI资源的信息可在NHERI门户网站（https：//www.example.com）上查阅。www.DesignSafe-ci.org为NHERI颁发的奖项有助于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项提供实验资源，用户服务和数据管理基础设施。该奖项将更新佛罗里达国际大学的NHERI风机风墙（WOW）实验设施，以支持2021年1月1日至2025年9月30日的风工程研究和教育。WOW是一个具有尖端功能的大型风力模拟设施，包括在风速高达并包括Saffir-Simpson等级的5级飓风（157 mph及以上）的情况下对建筑系统，组件和其他结构进行大规模和全尺寸测试，并具有风驱动雨选项。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缓解措施来防止风灾事件成为社区灾害。该设施将为K-12，本科生和研究生提供科学，技术，工程，数学和美国学术机构相关领域的教育经验。（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）以研究生为本科生导师，促进教中学，（3）继续推行教师研究经验计划（RET）该项目旨在帮助初中和高中教师与学生和设施工作人员合作，产生新的知识，并将其转化为课堂教学材料。该设施将帮助培养一个由学生、教师、教职员工和专业人士组成的多元化研究社区，共同应对美国与灾害相关的挑战，并实现风弹性社区。该设施将为风力工程提供独特的实验能力，这在美国其他大学不存在。凭借其12个风扇、大风场截面、降雨生成系统以及用于大气边界层（ABL）模拟的自动气流调节粗糙度和尖顶，该设施可以模拟各种暴露的真实飓风风速。该设施的实验能力包括：（1）在高雷诺数（Re）下模拟ABL流中进行高速整体全尺寸和大尺寸测试，以最大限度地减少比例误差，（2）系统级破坏性测试，以研究部件和连接的渐进损坏和故障，以改进设计，（3）风驱动的降雨模拟，以研究水侵入建筑物外壳，以及（4）测试以评估创新的缓解装置，以减轻风害和雨水渗透。 最近，该设施扩大了其能力，包括下击暴流模拟和全流场和流体结构相互作用表征在高Re。这些新功能将使高保真测量能够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提供新的知识，以改善目前的设计标准和做法。 在该设施进行的研究产生的实验数据将存档在NHERI门户网站上的数据库中。该奖项反映了NSF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.