The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) will be supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a distributed, multi-user national facility that will provide the natural hazards research community with access to research infrastructure that will include earthquake and wind engineering experimental facilities, cyberinfrastructure, computational modeling and simulation tools, and research data, as well as education and community outreach activities. NHERI will be comprised of separate awards for a Network Coordination Office, Cyberinfrastructure, Computational Modeling and Simulation Center, and Experimental Facilities, including a post-disaster, rapid response research facility. Awards made for NHERI will contribute to NSF's role in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program. NHERI continues NSF's emphasis on earthquake engineering research infrastructure previously supported under the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation as part of NEHRP, but now broadens that support to include wind engineering research infrastructure. NHERI has the broad goal of supporting research that will improve the resilience and sustainability of civil infrastructure, such as buildings and other structures, underground structures, levees, and critical lifelines, against the natural hazards of earthquakes and windstorms, in order to minimize loss of life, damage, and economic loss. Information about NHERI resources will be available on the DesignSafe-ci.org web portal.
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 support a NHERI Experimental Facility, located at the University of Texas at Austin, with large, mobile dynamic shakers and associated instrumentation for field experimentation. This equipment can be used to study and develop novel, in-situ testing methods that can be used to determine in-situ soil properties, evaluate the vulnerability of existing civil infrastructure, and optimize the design of future infrastructure. These advances will result in communities that are more resilient to earthquakes and other natural hazards. While there is a great deal to be learned from small- to large-scale laboratory testing, there remains the need to field test a wide variety of infrastructure, as constructed, in its current state. The facility equipment will fulfill the need for in-situ testing and allow for transformative tools to be developed in critical areas such as three-dimensional (3D) subsurface imaging (with applications such as rapid levee evaluation and void/cavity detection) and non-destructive testing (with applications such as advanced soil liquefaction evaluation and soil-foundation-structure interaction studies for buildings and bridges). Progress in these areas will lead the nation to the next frontier of resilient and sustainable infrastructure, which will benefit society at large and support continued economic, intellectual, and scientific growth.
This facility will enable researchers to address three main challenges to making in-situ testing advancements that, if accomplished, could transform the ability to rehabilitate and build more resilient and sustainable communities. These three main challenges are: (1) significantly improving the accuracy and resolution of shallow-to-deep (greater than 1000 meters) two-dimensional (2D) and 3D subsurface imaging; (2) characterizing the nonlinear dynamic response and liquefaction resistance of complex geomaterials in-situ; and (3) developing rapid, in-situ methods for non-destructive structural evaluations and for soil-foundation-structure interaction studies. While more heavily weighted toward addressing earthquake hazards, the ability to solve these challenges will also affect multi-hazard resiliency. For example, the challenge of performing rapid 2D and 3D subsurface imaging will apply directly to prioritizing rehabilitation of the nation's existing levee systems, many of which are currently not resilient to traditional flooding, hurricane storm surges, or earthquakes. The next frontier of natural hazards research ultimately demands that engineers develop practical solutions for complex problems, which will require testing of civil infrastructure systems over a wide range of actual field conditions. This in-situ testing can be accomplished using the large, mobile dynamic shakers and associated instrumentation of this facility. Furthermore, to develop more resilient and sustainable communities, it will be essential to engage and cultivate a diverse and talented group of future engineers who can address the challenges that face a rapidly growing population supported by aging infrastructure at risk to natural hazards. This facility will team with K-12 teachers to create age-appropriate, hazard-centered lesson modules that teach engineering concepts related to developing a more resilient and sustainable world. This facility will conduct three user workshops in year one and annual workshops in subsequent years and will host Research Experiences for Undergraduate students.
