Hurricane Wind Simulation and Testing to Develop Damage Mitigation Techniques

该研究项目的第一个目标是模拟飓风效应，以全面研究飓风-结构相互作用，促进更好地了解风、雨和碎片在空间和时间尺度上对建筑环境的综合影响。第二个目标是利用高性能纤维复合材料开发一种新颖、经济、轻质、坚固、延展性和非侵入性的屋顶到墙壁连接系统，以提高住宅建筑的抗飓风能力。过去几年的飓风造成了巨大的人员和经济损失。数千人丧生，价值数十亿美元的财产被毁。更重要的是，公众对其建筑环境的有效性和抵御大自然残酷力量的能力的信念已经破灭。工程结构很容易受到飓风引发的风、雨和碎片的破坏，尽管综合影响还不是很清楚。这些极端风力事件造成的破坏突出了沿海住宅楼建设的固有弱点，并强调了改善其结构性能的必要性。这项工作涉及飓风研究的两个高度优先领域，即国家安全局(2006)建议的“影响和相互作用”和“防备和建筑应变能力”。这项研究将通过捕捉一些复杂的流动分离、漩涡产生和再附着现象及其对用真实材料建造的结构和部件的影响，来全面推进关于飓风-结构相互作用的知识。将研究飓风风、雨和碎片的综合影响，以评估多目标系统的性能，通过基于性能的工程来改善安全和可服务性条件。这项工作将整合飓风研究的两个非常重要的方面，并满足国家了解极端风暴对建筑物的影响和提高沿海建筑(包括新建筑以及旧建筑的翻新)的弹性的需要，类似于汽车业解决耐撞性问题或地震工程界接近建筑安全的方式。该团队在风-结构相互作用和高性能复合材料方面的专业知识以及可用于全面测试的资源将有助于实现研究目标。该研究项目与教育的整合将通过将研究的各个方面分配给本科生和研究生作为高级设计、硕士和博士课题来实现。将举行有学生和业界参与的风墙竞赛，集思广益并测试创新的缓解概念，从而将这项技术从学术界转移到现场应用。这些活动将有助于培养一支训练有素的学生和具有所需专业知识的专业人员队伍。在校学生的研究成就将对吸引更多女性作为研究参与者产生积极影响。风之墙将作为一个多用户研究设施，服务于不同的学科，如土木工程、建筑学和建筑学。PIS将寻求与美国和海外的其他大学合作。风之墙将是一个工程课程实验室的所在地，该实验室将为指导多学科学生创造一种氛围。研究成果将通过同行评议的期刊和会议出版物广泛传播，并向政策制定者和建筑规范委员会提交报告，以改进当前的标准。这项研究预计将通过开发飓风缓解技术使整个社会受益，这些技术将导致人类安全、财产损失减少、保险成本降低，并发展应对自然灾害的“备灾文化”。

The first objective of this research project is to simulate hurricane effects to study hurricane-structure interaction in full-scale, facilitating better understanding of the combined impacts of wind, rain and debris on the built environment at spatial and temporal scales. The second objective is to develop a novel, cost-effective, light, strong, ductile, and non-intrusive roof-to-wall connection system using high performance fiber composite materials, to improve hurricane resiliency of residential buildings. The human and financial toll from hurricanes of the last few years has been immense. Thousands of lives have been lost and billions of dollars worth of property have been destroyed. More importantly, the public's belief in the effectiveness of its built environment and its ability to withstand the brutal forces of nature has been shattered. Engineered structures are vulnerable to damage from hurricane induced wind, rain and debris, though the combined impacts are not well understood. Damages during these extreme wind events highlight the weaknesses inherent in coastal residential building construction and underscore the need for improving their structural performance. This work addresses two high priority areas for hurricane research, namely, "Impacts and Interactions" and "Preparedness and Building Resiliency", as recommended by the NSB (2006). The research will advance knowledge pertaining to hurricane-structure interaction in full-scale by capturing some of the intricate flow separation, vortex generation, and re-attachment phenomena and their effects on structures and components built with real materials. Combined effects of hurricane wind, rain and debris will be studied to assess the multi-objective system performance to improve safety and serviceability conditions through performance-based engineering. The work will integrate two very important aspects of hurricane research and address the Nation's need for understanding extreme windstorm effects on structures and improving the resiliency of coastal construction (including new construction as well as retrofitting of old construction) in a similar way that the automobile industry tackled the crash worthiness issue or the earthquake engineering community approached building safety. The team's expertise in wind-structural interaction and high performance composites and the available resources for full-scale testing will help to achieve the research goals.Integration of this research project with education will be accomplished by assigning various aspects of the research to undergraduate and graduate students as senior-design, masters, and doctoral topics. Wall of Wind Contests, with student and industry participations, will be held to brainstorm and test innovative mitigation concepts, thus transferring the technology from academia to field applications. These activities will help in developing a trained workforce of students and professionals with needed expertise. Research accomplishments by current students will make a positive impact in bringing more women as research participants. Wall of Wind will act as a multi-user research facility and serve various disciplines such as Civil, Architectural, and Construction. PIs will seek to collaborate with other universities in the US and abroad. Wall of Wind will be home to a laboratory for engineering coursework which will create an atmosphere for mentoring multi-disciplinary students. Research results will be disseminated widely through peer-reviewed journal and conference publications, and reports to policy makers and building code committees to improve current standards. The research is expected to benefit society as a whole by developing hurricane mitigation techniques that will lead to human safety, property loss reduction, insurance cost reduction, and develop a "culture of preparedness" to natural disasters.