The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a distributed, multi-user national facility to provide the natural hazards engineering research community with access to research infrastructure that includes earthquake and wind engineering experimental facilities, cyberinfrastructure (CI), computational modeling and simulation tools, high performance computing resources, and research data, as well as education and community outreach activities. Originally funded under program solicitations NSF 14-605 and NSF 15-598, NHERI has operated since 2015 through separate, but coordinated, five-year research infrastructure awards for a Network Coordination Office, CI, Computational Modeling and Simulation Center, and Experimental Facilities, including a post-disaster, rapid response research facility. Information about NHERI resources are available at the NHERI web portal (www.DesignSafe-ci.org). Awards made for NHERI contribute to NSF's role in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP). 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 renew support for the NHERI Experimental Facility located at the University of Texas at Austin from January 1, 2021, to September 30, 2025. Through this award, researchers will have access to large, mobile dynamic shakers and associated instrumentation for field experimental studies in natural hazards engineering. These large mobile shakers can be used to study and develop novel, in-situ testing methods for subsurface imaging and determining in-situ soil properties, evaluate the vulnerability of existing civil infrastructure to natural hazards, and optimize the design of future infrastructure. These advances will result in communities that are more resilient to earthquakes and other natural hazards. While small- to large-scale laboratory testing can provide valuable research data, there remains the need to field test a wide variety of infrastructure, as constructed, in its current state. The facility's equipment will support in-situ testing and allow for research 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 and support continued economic, intellectual, and scientific growth. Experimental data generated from research conducted at this facility will be archived in the Data Depot on the NHERI web portal. The facility will conduct annual user workshops and will host Research Experiences for Undergraduate students.
The 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 1,000 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 requires that engineers develop practical solutions for complex problems, which will necessitate testing civil infrastructure systems over a wide range of actual field conditions. This in-situ testing can be accomplished using the mobile dynamic shakers and associated instrumentation of this facility. Additionally, to develop more resilient and sustainable communities, the facility will conduct outreach 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 award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
