The objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award is to pursue applications of non-traditional civil engineering materials to enhance passive damping in steel structures spanning from low-rise systems to tall buildings. This work will allow for customized and controlled energy dissipation throughout the structure leading to safety and serviceability of buildings subjected to wind and seismic loads. Non-traditional materials to be considered are metal foam, rubber, and others filled in the gaps between flanges of steel beams and as filler in tubular sections. The application of non-traditional materials to multiple loading scenarios can lead to long-term welfare, economic prosperity, and safety of communities. The results will be a more homogenized design of structures that provides an optimal performance regardless of the loading or building configuration. The cross-disciplinary nature of this concept also provides a unique opportunity to increase awareness of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields in young, diverse, and impressionable elementary school students. The elementary school teachers are targeted to increase understanding of science and mathematics concepts for buildings. The project will promote creativity in engineering students and to influence practitioners in future design of buildings.
Dynamic loads acting on steel structures, such as those caused by earthquake or wind events, have caused significant structural and/or non-structural damage bringing into question the resiliency and robustness of these structures. Under seismic loads, steel structures are designed to dissipate input energy through the formation of 'plastic hinges' resulting in permanent deformation in buildings, while the repeated wind loads on tall buildings can result in large drifts and accelerations leading to damage to nonstructural elements and the perception of motion by building occupants. The specific goal of this project is to address these concerns of the resiliency and robustness of steel structures. To achieve this goal, the behavior of non-traditional materials such as metal foam and rubber will be characterized under a variety of loading scenarios typically caused by seismic and wind events. Finite element models that are calibrated to the material characterization findings will be used to evaluate potential placement strategies of these high damping materials to best utilize their inherent properties. Full-scale sub-assemblies containing the damping materials will be experimentally tested to evaluate the performance of the applications in a variety of structural configurations under both seismic and wind loads. These findings will allow for the development of models to evaluate the performance of the mitigation strategies in reducing the response of various structural configurations. Education modules will be developed by and for elementary school teachers to help them educate students. Education of university students will be achieved through experiences as research assistants and incorporation of research findings in the curriculum.
