Devastation from an increasing number of natural disasters around the world, including recent earthquakes in Chile and Haiti, is pushing researchers to find innovative ways to make structures safer in the face of extreme weather events.
“Past experience has indicated that modern infrastructure systems are not prepared to resist future natural disaster events,” says Civil & Environmental Engineering professor Ashraf El Damatty at The University of Western Ontario. “Transmission towers, metal roofs and water tanks, for example, are particularly susceptible to serious damage.”
He and his team have just been awarded $125,000 over the next five years by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s Discovery Grants program to improve design codes and to introduce novel and practical techniques for retrofitting structures that increase their ability to withstand extreme weather.
The team will focus its attention on transmission line failures resulting from severe local wind storms like downbursts, hurricane damage to low-rise building roofs and on the earthquake resistance of water tanks by creating computer models based on data from previous disasters.
“By developing and validating tools that can predict the behaviours of various structures under different loads caused by both natural and man-made disasters, we should be able to more accurately predict and prevent damage,” El Damatty says. “In the process, we also hope to develop innovative retrofitting techniques using smart damping devices and advanced nanomaterials.”
El Damatty was one of 70 NSERC recipients announced at Western, sharing in a total of $2,311,972.
His work is carried out in conjunction with research underway at Western’s ‘Three Little Pigs’ project, Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory and Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction. It will also have implications for future research at the new WindEEE Dome the university will soon begin constructing.
“This work dovetails perfectly with the global leadership role Western has taken in the areas of wind engineering and natural disaster mitigation,” says Ted Hewitt, Western’s Vice-President (Research & International Relations). “We are grateful for NSERC’s continued support of innovative, advanced research in science and engineering that is helping provide a healthier, safer and more prosperous world.”