Power of ERDC

Discover how ERDC’s STAR Facility uses large-scale structural testing and impact loading to reduce risk, validate models and improve infrastructure design.

ERDC’s Art Gelvin and Matt Fort discuss an effort to install 182 sensors at Alaska’s Moose Creek Dam, allowing engineers to continually and remotely monitor dam conditions.

ERDC and ULM are expanding a regional Mesonet to test how localized weather and soil observations can improve modeling and mission support.

Unexploded military ordnance located underwater pose a significant risk to human safety, aquatic life and marine infrastructure. Better methods are needed to help those tasked with their disposal to safely locate and remove these dangerous munitions.

In response, ERDC researchers invented a patented blast shield that can enable safe detonation while mitigating harmful blast pressures and containing toxic byproducts.

We discuss this innovative apparatus with its inventors – Taylor Rycroft, a research environmental engineer with ERDC’s Environmental Laboratory, and Griffin Donohue, a technical engineer with ERDC’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.

Topics include the challenges presented by underwater UXO (1:25), what initiated this effort (4:19), and the blast shield’s unique design and how it works (8:12). We also discuss how the blast shield improves on existing methodologies (15:18), next steps (20:19), and how the team will test and evaluate this technology using unique ERDC capabilities to simulate underwater explosions (24:53).

Read more about the Underwater UXO Blast Shield at https://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Stories/Article/4548190/erdc-researchers-granted-patent-for-novel-underwater-uxo-blast-shield-invention.

Watch a video of this episode at PowerofERDCPodcast.org/81-underwater-uxo-blast-shield_video.

Navigating modern waterways demands precision engineering to safeguard our economy, prevent maritime accidents and eliminate millions in unnecessary construction and dredging costs.

To meet this challenge, an order from U.S. Army leaders and an updated Engineering Regulation have established the U.S. Army Watercraft and Ship Simulator, located at ERDC’s campus in Vicksburg, Mississippi, as the primary authority for all U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) navigation projects.

By integrating ERDC’s physics-based hydrodynamic modeling expertise with hands-on evaluations from certified local pilots, this facility significantly reduces project risks and provides measurable cost avoidance long before construction begins.

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Keith Martin and Richard Hunt, program leads with the Watercraft and Ship Simulator team, to discuss the simulation facility's capabilities (1:35), the changes brought about by a new mandate from Army leadership (3:45) and the impact the facility and team have had — and continue to have — on critical civil works and maritime projects (7:10). We also discuss the risks — both physical and financial — if design teams decide not to use simulation capabilities (7:53), the differences between ERDC’s ship simulation facility and private-sector facilities (9:12) and the important role experienced boat pilots play in the success of simulation projects (11:13).

For more information on the Watercraft and Ship Simulator, the new engineering regulations, success stories and more, visit PowerofERDCPodcast.org/80-Watercraft-And-Ship-Simulator_Resources. You can also watch a video of this podcast at PowerofERDCPodcast.org/80-Watercraft-And-Ship-Simulator_video.

ERDC’s Leigh Langley discusses how she and her team were able to transport a dune to the laboratory to learn lessons that will improve the nation’s coastal management practices.

Learn how ERDC is deploying advanced lidar technology to monitor Suicide Basin and help USACE design flood mitigation systems to project Juneau, Alaska.

Extreme weather events are not unique to the United States. That is why an ERDC researcher will be traveling to Japan to study with experts there and collaborate on strategies that can reduce flood risk in both nations.

Dr. Amanda Tritinger, a research civil engineer at ERDC’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, was recently selected for the U.S. Army’s Engineer and Scientist Exchange Program (ESEP). As principal engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineering With Nature® program, she is a renowned expert on natural and hybrid infrastructure and applying it to reduce risks from flooding, erosion and extreme weather.

Tritinger is the first U.S. engineer selected as an ESEP participant in Japan, where she will work alongside Japan’s Ministry of Defense and National Defense Academy to conduct research on the risk assessment of heavy precipitation and typhoon damage in Japan.

We talk with Tritinger about the program and how she came to be involved with it (1:31), the research she will be conducting (10:09), how it builds upon her past research efforts (12:46) and how the things she will learn will strengthen future research endeavors (18:41). Additional topics include Japan’s unique flood mitigation challenges (21:30); and how the Army (22:58), USACE and ERDC (24:47) will benefit from this collaboration.

For more information, visit PowerofERDCPodcast.org/77-Japan-flood-mitigation_resources. Watch a video of this episode at PowerofERDCPodcast.org/77-Japan-flood-mitigation_video.

Learn how ERDC uses large-scale 3D printing, advanced materials and industry partnerships to build complex components and accelerate physical modeling.

Learn how ERDC research in force protection, blast effects and protective design helped prepare the nation to respond to September 11 and the challenges that followed.