CAREER: Engineering-Centric Thunderstorm Hazard and Loading Characterization

该学院早期职业发展（Career）奖支持专注于推进结构和风力工程雷暴风险评估的研究。由雷暴产生的风（即雷暴风）是造成很大一部分风暴损失的原因。建筑物和其他结构的设计是基于对大气边界层（ABL）流动的全尺寸测量。近地面雷暴风的有限风速数据表明，雷暴风具有不同于ABL的特性，这反过来影响了结构的风荷载。由于缺乏全尺寸的风速数据，数值和实验模拟的结果难以验证。这项研究将获得全面的现场测量，将填补空间和时间尺度上的关键空白，并包括风速和风荷载的联合测量。这些测量结果将被纳入新的和更新的雷暴工程模型和框架中。为了更广泛地了解雷暴的重要性，佛罗里达国际大学和佛罗里达大学将与美国国家科学基金会（NSF）支持的自然灾害工程研究基础设施（NHERI）风工程设施合作，开始刺激计算和实验风工程的研究，其中现场测量是模拟的关键需求。参与和教育公众将通过公民科学、K-12教育项目和当地媒体采访进行。该奖项将有助于NSF在国家减少风暴影响计划（NWIRP）中的作用。项目数据将存档在NHERI数据仓库（https://www.DesignSafe-ci.org）.There)中，目前没有雷暴风的ABL模拟，部分原因是在与工程相关的特征（如风的垂直剖面）中观察到很大的变化。该项目将侧重于在高时空分辨率下对地面附近的风速和风荷载进行配置和四维测量，将工程作为中心焦点。具体来说，该项目的第一项任务将是在伊利诺伊州的一个固定地点测量雷暴风的风荷载特征，该地点将包括广泛而密集分布的传感器。这一目标将由第二项任务和第三项任务补充，第二项任务是通过使用移动仪器进行现场部署来测量风和风致载荷，第三项任务是根据事后损害调查推断雷暴风特征。第四项任务是根据收集到的数据建立新的经验函数和雷暴风场模型。这些函数和模式将包括不同的雷暴风类型（例如，脱回波和孤立下暴），并将提高对观测到的变率的理解。收集新的和独特的数据集将促进对雷暴风的新的和基本的发现。本研究旨在建立一个类似热带气旋的综合工程雷暴模型。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。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award supports research focused on advancing thunderstorm risk assessment for structural and wind engineering. Winds generated from thunderstorms (i.e., thunderstorm winds) are responsible for a significant proportion of windstorm losses. Buildings and other structures are designed based on full-scale measurements in atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flow. The limited wind speed data collected on thunderstorm winds near the ground show they possess different properties than the ABL, which in turn influences wind loading on structures. Due to the lack of full-scale wind speed data, the results of numerical and experimental simulations are difficult to validate. This research will obtain comprehensive field measurements that will fill critical gaps in spatial and temporal scales and include joint measurements of wind speed and wind loading. These measurements will be assimilated into new and updated engineering models and frameworks for thunderstorms. To increase broader knowledge of thunderstorm importance, collaboration with the National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) wind engineering facilities at Florida International University and the University of Florida will commence to stimulate research in computational and experimental wind engineering where field measurements are a critical need for simulation. Engaging and educating the public will take place through citizen science, K-12 outreach programs on wind hazards, and local media interviews. This award will contribute to the NSF role in the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP). Project data will be archived in the NHERI Data Depot (https://www.DesignSafe-ci.org).There is currently no ABL analog for thunderstorm winds, due in part to the large variability observed in characteristics relevant to engineering such as vertical profiles of the wind. This project will focus on collocated and 4-D measurements of wind speed and wind loading near the ground at high spatiotemporal resolution that places engineering as the central focus. Specifically, the first task of the project will be to measure wind and wind loading characteristics of thunderstorm winds at a fixed site in Illinois, which will include widely and densely distributed sensors. This objective will be complemented by the second task, which is the measurement of wind and wind-induced loading through field deployments using mobile instrumentation, and the third task, which is the inference of thunderstorm wind characteristics from post-event damage surveys. The fourth task will build new empirical functions and thunderstorm wind field models based on the data collected. These functions and models will incorporate different thunderstorm wind types (e.g., derecho and isolated downburst) and will improve understanding of observed variability. Collection of new and unique datasets will promote new and fundamental discoveries for thunderstorm winds. This research aims toward a comprehensive engineering-based thunderstorm model similar to those developed for tropical cyclones.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.