| NSF Org: |
TI Translational Impacts |
| Recipient: |
|
| Initial Amendment Date: | April 29, 2022 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | April 29, 2022 |
| Award Number: | 2223439 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Jaime A. Camelio
jcamelio@nsf.gov (703)292-2061 TI Translational Impacts TIP Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships |
| Start Date: | May 1, 2022 |
| End Date: | April 30, 2024 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $50,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $50,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
|
| History of Investigator: |
|
| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1109 GEDDES AVE STE 3300 ANN ARBOR MI US 48109-1015 (734)763-6438 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
| Primary Place of Performance: |
3003 South State Street Ann Arbor MI US 48109-1274 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
|
| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
|
| Parent UEI: |
|
| NSF Program(s): | I-Corps |
| Primary Program Source: |
|
| Program Reference Code(s): |
|
| Program Element Code(s): |
|
| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.084 |
ABSTRACT
The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of software tools for the performance-based wind design (PBWD) of a wide class of building systems subject to extreme winds. In 2020 alone, it is estimated that the United States was subject to 22 weather events that caused more than one billion dollars of losses. To increase the resilience of the built environment against extreme winds, there is interest from the engineering community to radically change how buildings are designed to resist extreme winds through the application that implement performance-based engineering. The proposed technology may fill the unmet market need for software tools that provide the practicing civil/structural engineering community with a means to carry out PBWD of building systems. The software tools may create the design freedom necessary for innovation leading to reduced economic and societal losses during extreme weather events.
This I-Corps project is based on the development of software technologies for performance-based wind design (PBWD) of a wide class of structural systems through reliability-based dynamic shakedown. The technology is based on recent advances in the theory and probabilistic modeling of inelastic structural systems of wind excited buildings. These advances may enable, for the first time, the comprehensive inclusion of failure mechanisms associated with instantaneous plastic collapse, low-cycle fatigue, and ratcheting, which are fundamental for the characterization of the post-yield behavior of structural systems subject to weather events. The computational efficiency and robustness of the resulting frameworks have allowed the introduction of a new class of software tools that have the potential to provide structure designers with practical means to achieve designs that meet the current and future needs for buildings with enhanced performance and greater sustainability at reduced cost.
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.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Extreme windstorms cause significant economic loss and societal disruption annually. To enhance the resilience of buildings against extreme winds, the civil engineering community is keen to adopt performance-based wind design (PBWD). This approach explicitly evaluates performance across all hazard intensities, including severe damage scenarios while systematically addressing uncertainty through reliability. Recent advances in research have resulted in the development of novel theories for predicting the response of infrastructure to extreme winds. The development of technology that translates these advances into tools that can be leveraged by practitioners could accelerate the uptake of PBWD in practice and thereby reduce the massive impacts of extreme winds.
The goal of this I-Corps project was to conduct a full customer discovery for the development of technology around recent advances in reliability-based dynamic shakedown for the implementation of PBWD. The main outcomes of the project are in several aspects: (1) identification of a target market, an initial set of potential customers, and the ecosystem of stakeholders; (2) multiple rounds of customer discovery that provided vital input for the development of a proof-of-concept software for the envisioned technology; and (3) market validation resulting in an initial cohort of users. By continuing to refine and expand these outcomes, the team plans to create technology that will ultimately pave the way for the widespread adoption of PBWD in practice, thereby mitigating the massive economic loss and societal disruption caused by extreme windstorms. The project provided a unique opportunity for a graduate student and a postdoc to learn about technology transfer and customer discovery.
Last Modified: 09/01/2024
Modified by: Seymour M Spence
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.
