IUCRC Phase II at Texas Tech 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. The Texas Tech University (TTU) Site has a world-renowned wind-related research and education program with more than 50 years of history. The program administers a suite of world-class research facilities that include one of the largest tornado simulators in the world, a boundary-layer wind tunnel, unique Ka-band research grade mobile radars for measurements of windstorms, a 200 m meteorological tower instrumented at 10 heights for high fidelity measurements of wind and other meteorological conditions, and a debris impact facility. These research facilities are utilized by faculty and students from multiple disciplines that include engineering, atmospheric science and socioeconomics to pursue research sponsored by the WHIP Center and generate the envisioned societal impacts. As the Lead Site of the Center, Texas University will manage the operation of the Center that also includes a Partner Site at Florida International University and an Affiliate at Florida Institute of Technology. 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.