Track: B1. Empowering Resilience with Technology and Design

Background/Objectives

The Wind Hazard and Infrastructure Performance (WHIP) Center was established in 2019 under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (NSF IUCRC) program. It is a collaborative endeavor between the government (NSF), industry (private companies, professional organizations, and state and federal agencies), and academia (universities).

Phase 1 of the WHIP Center is near completion and the Center has been established as a viable and impactful research center. During Phase 2, the WHIP Center shall expand with an enlarged research portfolio and commensurate industrial membership. Each phase is intended to be of five-year duration. Phase1 of the Center has had noteworthy success in getting research results useful to the industry members. The mission of the Center is to pursue research to enhance the resiliency of buildings and infrastructure to extreme windstorms such as hurricanes and tornadoes. While the objective of the Center research is to provide results that members can incorporate in their practice, the long-term outcomes are expected to benefit the broader community in terms of adapting, mitigating, and improving resilience in a changing climate.

The proposed presentation will introduce the WHIP-C to the ICR24 audience and will present representative research projects that were conducted during Phase I. Research translation to practice will also be discussed to highlight the effective and impactful operation of the industry-academia collaboration.

Approach/Activities

Research conducted under the WHIP-C in the past dealt with surge and wind damage, roofing components, impact of wind-borne debris, damage to building envelope and contents in windstorms, and tornado loading. For instance, a recent research project investigated experimentally the effect of wind on complex shaped low-rise buildings. The primary objective of this research was to achieve a deeper comprehension of how structures with complex plans interact with wind, contributing to the development of improved design strategies for buildings with irregular shapes. The study's findings shed light on the intricate flow interactions that complex-shaped structures induce, leading to unexpected pressure distributions on both walls and roof sections. Designers/manufacturers can take advantage of these insights to focus their reinforcement efforts on areas that may not have been traditionally considered critical.

Results/Lessons Learned

The research outcomes of the Center are currently being applied by the industry members to develop solutions to real-world solutions, such as design codes for tornado-resistant buildings, wind-resistant roof shingles and support systems for solar panels, tools for the evaluation of building performance due to wind and storm surge as well as catastrophe models for mid/high-rise building structures, contents and time-related expenses due to wind and wind-driven rain, and a model for evaluating household recovery after wind disasters. The above directly contribute to the resilience of society to wind hazards while training the future workforce in the area of natural hazards engineering.