MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of a Real-Time Hybrid Simulation Testing System for Cyber-Physical Research and Training

该重大研究仪器（MRI）奖支持购买最先进的结构测试仪器。该仪器将能够进行信息-物理“混合”测试。这些试验协调了计算机数值模型和物理实验试样在真实的时间内的响应。这样，仪器可以更好地复制真实的加载条件。这些负荷条件包括，例如，自然灾害对国家关键基础设施的影响。使用该仪器进行的网络物理测试将有助于更好地了解创新基础设施材料和组件的性能。使用该仪器验证的结构材料和部件将有助于减轻自然灾害造成的经济，财产和人员损失，改善社会中个人的福祉。新仪器将改变多学科MRI团队在俄克拉荷马州大学（University of Oklahoma）进行研究的方式，将促进与行业的技术转让，并将促进具有全球竞争力的科学、技术、工程、艺术和数学（STEAM）劳动力的发展。该仪器还将成为周边地区研究人员的资源。满足对更具弹性基础设施的需求需要提高对建筑材料和结构部件在自然灾害产生的实际负载下的复杂行为和性能的基本理解。这样的加载条件可以实现使用实时混合仿真（RTHS）所获得的仪器的便利。该仪器支持的研究将（1）揭示创新结构部件复杂非线性行为背后的物理学原理，（2）量化其在民用领域的性能（例如，建筑物和桥梁）和能量（例如，太阳能和风能）应用，（3）推进这些组件的基于物理的数学模型，以及（4）促进涉及增材制造，材料科学和艺术的多学科和基础研究。对这些结构材料和组件的基本理解将为弹性基础设施带来新技术。总体而言，RTHS仪器将产生推进多学科研究项目所需的复杂载荷条件。该项目由主要仪器研究计划（MRI），刺激竞争研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）和土木工程部的土木基础设施计划（ECI）共同资助，机械和制造创新（CMMI）。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。

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award supports the acquisition of a state-of-the-art structural testing instrument. The instrument will enable cyber-physical “hybrid” tests. These tests coordinate the response of a cyber numerical model and a physical experimental test specimen in real time. In doing so, the instrument better replicates realistic loading conditions. These loading conditions include, for example, the impacts of natural hazards on the nation’s critical infrastructure. The cyber-physical tests conducted with the instrument will help to better understand the performance of innovative infrastructure materials and components. The structural materials and components validated using the instrument will help to mitigate economic, property, and human losses caused by natural hazards, improving the well-being of individuals in society. The new instrument will transform the way the multidisciplinary MRI team conducts research at the University of Oklahoma (OU), will foster technology transfer with industry, and will promote the development of a globally competitive science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics (STEAM) workforce. The instrument will also be a resource for researchers in the surrounding region.Addressing the demand for more resilient infrastructure requires an improved basic understanding of the complex behavior and performance of building materials and structural components subject to realistic loading produced by natural hazards. Such loading conditions can be realized using real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) facilitated by the acquired instrument. Research enabled by the instrument will (1) reveal the physics behind the complex, nonlinear behavior of innovative structural components, (2) quantify their performance in civil (e.g., buildings and bridges) and energy (e.g., solar and wind) applications, (3) advance physics-based mathematical models of such components, and (4) catalyze multidisciplinary and fundamental research involving additive manufacturing, material science, and the arts. The fundamental understanding of these structural materials and components will result in new technologies for resilient infrastructure. Overall, the RTHS instrument will produce the complex loading conditions needed to advance multidisciplinary research projects.This project is jointly funded by the Major Instrumentation Research Program (MRI), the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and the Engineering for Civil Infrastructure Program (ECI) in the division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI).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.