Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure: Experimental Facility with Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel 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。该奖项将在2021年1月1日至2025年9月30日期间更新佛罗里达大学的NHERI实验设施。通过该合同，佛罗里达大学将继续维护、运行和增强其NHERI的边界层风洞（BLWT）组件，使研究能够了解民用基础设施对强风破坏性影响的脆弱性，并改进建筑规范和标准，以保护易发生灾害的社区。BLWT是通过模拟极端风（飓风、雷暴和龙卷风）在受控环境下的比例模型上的影响来评估结构风荷载的重要工具。这种对风力的基本理解是降低风险、减少损害和挽救生命的关键方面，它使工程师能够进行具有成本效益的设计，以抵御极端风。该设施将通过开发和实施K-12教师培训计划，为灾害工程工作人员培养一个重要的生态系统，以增加有关风力灾害的教学知识。该设施还将举办年度用户研讨会，并为本科生举办研究体验。与高性能计算集群相结合，佛罗里达大学的NHERI设施将提供实验和计算能力、人员配备、领域专业知识和端到端项目服务，从而实现变革性研究。BLWT是多种技术的集大成之作，这些技术提高了可执行的风害实验的范围和吞吐量。实验自动化工具将为研究人员提供测试配置的灵活性，同时支持高通量测试和数据收集。接近地形可以在连续的选择中快速重新配置，以在广泛的几何尺度范围内实现所需的流动条件。仪器龙门架可以穿越预设路径，使用多个3D探头或立体粒子想象测速系统在隧道测试段的任何地方收集风场测量数据。流场调制器（FFM）由319个由电子速度控制器驱动的单独控制的带冠螺旋桨组成的二维阵列组成。FFM能够以较小的几何尺度模拟非单调剖面和非平稳事件，如破坏性阵风锋和下爆。该设施的网络基础设施支持远程使用、混合实验、实时分析、自动数据备份以及与NHERI网络基础设施的无缝集成。这些实验能力将为风洞测试提供新的机会，并为解决与弹性基础设施、生命线、风能和气象学相关的突出风危害问题提供开放途径。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 Experimental Facility at the University of Florida from January 1, 2021, to September 30, 2025. Through this award, the University of Florida will continue to maintain, operate, and enhance its Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel (BLWT) component of NHERI, which enables research to understand the vulnerability of civil infrastructure to the destructive impacts of strong winds and improve building codes and standards to safeguard hazard-prone communities. The BLWT is an important tool for assessing wind loads on structures through the simulation of the effects of extreme winds (hurricanes, thunderstorms, and tornadoes) on scaled models in a controlled environment. This fundamental understanding of wind forces is a critical aspect of mitigating risk, reducing damage, and saving lives by enabling engineers to perform cost effective design to resist extreme winds. The facility will cultivate an important ecosystem for the hazard engineering workforce through the development and implementation of a K-12 teacher training program to increase pedagogical knowledge about wind hazards. The facility will also conduct annual user workshops and host Research Experiences for Undergraduate students.Combined with the collocated high-performance computing cluster, the NHERI facility at the University of Florida will provide the experimental and computational capacity, staffing, domain expertise, and end-to-end project services that enable transformative research. The BLWT is a culmination of multiple technologies that improve the range and throughput of wind hazard experiments that can be performed. The experimental automation tools will provide researchers flexibility in their test configurations while supporting high-throughput testing and data collection. The approach terrain can be rapidly reconfigured over a continuum of options to achieve desired flow conditions over a wide range of geometric scales. The instrumentation gantry can traverse preset paths to collect wind field measurements anywhere in the tunnel test section using multiple 3D probes or a stereoscopic particle imagine velocimetry system. The Flow Field Modulator (FFM) consists of a 2D array of 319 individually controlled shrouded propellers driven by electronic speed controllers. The FFM enables the simulation of non-monotonic profiles and nonstationary events, such as damaging gust fronts and downbursts, at a reduced geometric scale. The facility’s cyberinfrastructure supports remote use, hybrid experiments, real-time analysis, automated data back-up, and seamless integration with the NHERI cyberinfrastructure. These experimental capabilities will provide new opportunities in wind tunnel testing and open pathways to solve outstanding wind hazard issues associated with resilient infrastructure, lifelines, wind energy, and meteorology. Experimental data generated from the 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.