Plans are afoot to build the world’s largest wind-wave research lab, capable of generating 200 MPH hurricane winds and 5-meter-high waves. This NSF-funded facility will enable full-scale investigations into structural and coastal resilience — and a secure future in the face of destructive natural hazards. On today’s show, Florida International University wind engineer Arindam Chowdhury joins us to describe this facility, the National Full-Scale Testing Infrastructure for Community Hardening in Extreme Wind, Surge, and Wave Events — or NICHE, for short.

About NICHE. The NICHE lab will have a 20-fan array capable of generating 200 MPH winds, that’s a Cat 6 hurricane — as well as generating transient winds like tornadoes and downbursts. NICHE’s enormous wind field will enable testing of full-scale two-story structures. It will have a 500-meter-long wave flume and be capable of generating five-meter-high waves. Significantly, the NICHE team is incorporating facility protocols for researchers to deliver expedient, real-world impact. 

CHEER researchers focus on understanding decision-making among all the players involved in sustaining a resilient coastal community. Davidson details how stakeholders – insurers, government agencies, and residents -- have different, reasonable, and conflicting goals. CHEER’s goal is to find policy solutions that will manage hazard risks as well as ensure economic development in coastal communities vulnerable to hurricanes. It’s a new approach to building a sustainable disaster risk management system in the U.S.

Subscribe to the CHEER newsletter https://www.drc.udel.edu/cheer-chronicle-announcement-june-2024/

Follow CHEER on LInkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/cheer-hub/posts/?feedView=all

CHEERHub website https://www.drc.udel.edu/cheer/

Read about the NHERI-CHEER partnership

https://www.designsafe-ci.org/community/news/2024/july/nheri-partners-cheer-hub-hurricane-decision-making-framework/

CHEERHub’s NSF award summary

https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2209190&HistoricalAwards=false

Rachel Davidson is an accomplished academic and research engineer. Discover more about her career and work:

https://ccee.udel.edu/faculty/rachel-davidson/

Working with the NHERI SimCenter and DesignSafe, the CHEER team is developing a software framework called Stakeholder-based Tool for the Analysis of Regional Risk, or STARR. STARR modeling extends regional loss models like R2D, INCORE, and Hazus to include a focus on decision making. STARR models describe the complex and often conflicting ways that stakeholders in vulnerable coastal areas make decisions. Stakeholders are households, insurers, and government agencies. If policies can account for positive outcomes for all stakeholders, they’re more likely to be implemented and sustained.

Learn more about the CHEERHub https://www.drc.udel.edu/cheer/

Read about the NHERI-CHEER partnership https://www.designsafe-ci.org/community/news/2024/july/nheri-partners-cheer-hub-hurricane-decision-making-framework/

HAZUS developed by FEMA

https://www.fema.gov/flood-maps/products-tools/hazus

INCORE developed by NIST

https://www.nist.gov/community-resilience/center-excellence

NHERI SimCenter R2D tool

https://simcenter.designsafe-ci.org/research-tools/r2dtool/

CHEERHub’s NSF award summary

https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2209190&HistoricalAwards=false

CHEERHub on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/cheer-hub/posts/?feedView=all

Rachel Davidson is an accomplished academic and research engineer. Discover more about her career and work: https://ccee.udel.edu/faculty/rachel-davidson/

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Rachel Davidson is a research engineer at the University of Delaware and principal investigator for the “Coastal Hazards Equity, Economic Prosperity, and Resilience Hub,” or CHEERHub. The five-year, $16M, NSF-funded, multi-disciplinary research network is tackling the complexity of coastal resilience by focusing on stakeholder decision making. Davidson introduces CHEER and explains why so many good ideas for managing disaster risks do not get implemented.

Learn more about the CHEERHub https://www.drc.udel.edu/cheer/

Read about the NHERI-CHEER partnership

https://www.designsafe-ci.org/community/news/2024/july/nheri-partners-cheer-hub-hurricane-decision-making-framework/

CHEERHub’s NSF award summary

https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2209190&HistoricalAwards=false

CHEERHub on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/company/cheer-hub/posts/?feedView=all

Rachel Davidson is an accomplished academic and research engineer. Discover more about her career and work:

https://ccee.udel.edu/faculty/rachel-davidson/

Mentoring at UC Davis

How do geotech students gain experience? Laura Luna and José Luis Caisapanta discuss the UC Davis Geotechical Graduate Student Society, a nationally respected mentoring program. In an intentional “laddering” fashion, grad students new to the UC Davis program learn from more experienced grad students and – in turn – pass their knowledge to undergrads and K-12 students. Luna and Caisapanta share their experiences as members of the GGSS.

UC Davis GGSS website:

https://ggss.ucdavis.edu/

Geo-Institute winning video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=BUQo3zy_mTY

NHERI at UC Davis website:

https://ucdavis.designsafe-ci.org/

Center for Geotechnical modeling on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/company/ucd-cgm/

Follow the Center for Geotechnical modeling on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=center%20for%20geotechnical%20modeling

Civil engineering grad students from NHERI UC Davis join Dan Zehner to discuss research at the renowned Center for Geotechnical Modeling, a geotech lab equipped with a nine-meter centrifuge. Master’s student Jose Louis Caisapanta describes soil experiments with the centrifuge – which can deploy a shake table during its 50G spins. PhD student Laura Luna explains building physical models in the centrifuge. She uses resulting data to create a computer model that will predict soil behavior beneath a structure during an earthquake.

About the equipment and people at the NHERI UC Davis laboratory:

https://ucdavis.designsafe-ci.org/

Discover research, events, lab photos and more on the CGM Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063111107077

Follow NHERI UC Davis on Linked In:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/ucd-cgm/

CGM Director Jason DeJong on DesignSafe Radio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlLTdPaOUFk

In our final episode with FIU meteorologist Erik Salna, we learn about the Wall of Wind Challenge, an annual event for high school students. NHERI researchers provide a specific wind mitigation challenge. Student teams design and build a protective structure, and then get the chance to test their designs in the Wall of Wind. It’s an exciting competition, which is judged by engineers who are Wall of Wind alums! See below for links to the 2024 event and Salna’s template for conducting this popular STEM competition for high schools.

NHERI Wall of Wind website: https://fiu.designsafe-ci.org/

2024 Wall of Wind Challenge, cool video and the winning designs: https://www.designsafe-ci.org/community/news/2024/june/2024-wall-of-wind-mitigation-challenge-high-school-teams-design-test-productive-wind-barriers/

Overview of the WOW Challenge event for educators, including a technical library: https://www.ihrc.fiu.edu/outreach-education/wall-of-wind-challenge/

The NSF NICHE facility, the future of wind engineering at FIU: https://www.designsafe-ci.org/facilities/experimental/niche/

Follow the Wall of Wind on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FIUWOW

Follow Erik Salna on X

@ExtremeWxExp