Center: Phase II IUCRC at Florida International University: Center for Wind Hazard and Infrastructure Performance (WHIP)

Numerous windstorms, including hurricanes, tornadoes, and thunderstorms, strike the United States every year, inflicting extensive damage to buildings and other infrastructure such as structures in power, transportation, communication and information technology systems. This causes devastating life and property losses as well as prolonged interruption to critical societal functions. Even worse, future losses from windstorms are likely to increase because of the aging of buildings and other infrastructure as well as the growing population in hazard-prone regions. The Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) for Wind Hazard and Infrastructure Performance (WHIP Center) is a consortium of major stakeholders for wind hazard resilience, which include academic institutions, government agencies and industry members from multiple sectors such as insurance, risk management structural engineering and renewable energy. By performing research of interests to these stakeholders, it addresses the multifaceted challenges presented by windstorms and develops solutions that can be expeditiously transferred to industry applications and generate societal impacts by enhancing the economic competitiveness of the U.S. and the well-being of its citizens. The WHIP Center adopts a broad-based approach aimed at serving its members and, through that, society. Its major research themes are characterization of wind hazards, assessment of performance and vulnerability of buildings and other infrastructure, improvement of community resilience, and reduction to societal impact by wind hazards. Within these themes, the faculty and students in the Center use analytical, experimental and numerical approaches to generate actionable solutions based on the needs of the industry members. As a partner institution, Florida International University (FIU) offers an extensive expertise in Natural Hazards Engineering. The FIU Site is home to the NSF NHERI Wall of Wind Experimental Facility (WOW EF), a 12-fan large open jet wind tunnel capable of simulating a Category 5 hurricane – the highest rating on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. FIU’s Extreme Events Institute (EEI) manages the WOW EF and fosters interdisciplinary research to build resilience against multiple hazards. Through research sponsored by the WHIP Center, the EEI and other FIU faculty and students will generate the envisioned societal impacts. 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.