RESEARCH PROGRAM

Wind Hazard Assessment

Estimation of wind hazard for a community or a location and understanding of wind speeds and turbulence in hurricanes, tornadoes, and other extreme wind events within the boundary layer are part of research agenda. Field measurements and statistical analyses are pursued to obtain results that help industry partners.

Vulnerability of Buildings and Infrastructure

Vulnerability is a function of wind hazard exposure and robustness of the building and infrastructure such as transmission lines. Development of damage probabilities (fragility curves) in different type of windstorms (e.g. tornado, hurricane, downburst) for a variety of buildings and infrastructure systems will assist in improving estimation of vulnerability of the built environment.

Evaluation of Societal Impact by Wind Hazards

Societal impacts include displacemets of residents, relocation of offices and closing of businesses.  These have major impacts on economic well-being of the society and suffering by people.  Research in supply chain, labor market, and sociology can advance in understanding of impact and mitigating in future storms.  Big data, social survey and statics are employed to pursue research.

Community Resilience

Community resiliency is gained by providing robustness of buildings and infrastructure and improving ability to recover quickly from damage caused by windstorms. Innovative new building products and approaches to retrofit building and infrastructure systems can improve resiliency. Analytical methods and experimental testing are pursued to develop products to enhance resiliency.