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NSF Funds CEE to Develop Hurricane Damage Mitigation Techniques

CEE and IHRC Professors Arindam Gan Chowdhury, Amir Mirmiran, and Emil Simiu received a two-year award from the National Science Foundation to develop hurricane damage mitigation techniques.

The US coast from Maine to Texas is vulnerable to hurricane impacts. Hurricane-induced economic losses have steadily increased during the past 50 years with losses of $1.3 billion per year (1949-1989), $10.1 billion per year (1990-1995), and $35.8 billion per year in the last five years (National Science Board - NSB 2007). The human and financial toll from hurricanes of the last few years has been immense. Engineered structures are vulnerable to damage from hurricane induced wind, rain and debris, though the combined impacts are not well understood. Damages during these extreme wind events highlight the weaknesses inherent in coastal residential building construction and underscore the need for improving their structural performance. The proposed work addresses two high priority areas for hurricane research, namely, ‘Impacts and Interactions’ and ‘Preparedness and Building Resiliency’, as recommended by the NSB (2007). The first objective of the proposed research is to simulate hurricane effects to study hurricane-structure interaction in full-scale by using Wall of Wind and facilitating better understanding of the combined impacts of wind, rain and debris on the built environment at spatial and temporal scales. The second objective is to develop a novel, cost-effective, light, strong, ductile, and non-intrusive roof-to-wall connection system using high performance fiber composite materials, to improve hurricane resiliency of residential buildings.