Collaborative Research: Damage Assessment of Coastal Structures Subject to Waterborne Debris Impact under Extreme Wind and Wave Conditions

With rising sea-levels and more frequent weather-related extreme events, coastal civil infrastructure and communities are becoming more flood-prone and consequently subject to an elevated risk of damage and destruction. Among the various flood-related risks, flood-borne debris can be destructive to coastal infrastructure (e.g., buildings, houses, and bridges).

Such debris (e.g. trees, cars, and ships) are carried by floods and waves, often in combination with extreme wind gusts. Currently, there is a significant gap in understanding and modeling the key physical processes associated with flood-borne debris. This project will provide a science-based approach to understand and predict the flood-borne debris damages to structures under extreme flood flow and wind conditions.

The research will also be complemented by an educational component that includes workshops, curriculum development, and training demonstrations. The educational program will be designed to have positive and measurable impact on a broad spectrum of students (ranging from high school to graduate students), foster an increased participation among minority and underrepresented groups, and inform students of the novel research and diverse cultures of the three participating institutions, i.e., Columbia University, SUNY at Stony Brook, and CUNY City College.

This award will contribute to the National Science Foundation (NSF) role in the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP).

The overarching goal of this research is to understand and quantify the critical mechanics processes involved in water-wind-debris-structure interactions, including debris drifting by extreme flow and wind conditions, debris collision with the structure, and the resulting damages. A multidisciplinary approach employing computational fluid dynamics, computational solid mechanics, and laboratory experiments will be used to achieve this goal.

Specific research tasks include: (1) innovative experiments deploying “smart debris” to investigate wind and transport effects of flood-borne debris and their impact/damage to structures, (2) new computational methods and software for an integrated simulation of debris drifting, impingement, and damage to structures, and (3) novel physics-based fragility curves, at the system level, for structural failure risk assessment due to debris impacts. In the long term, this research can lead to enhanced designs and mitigation strategies for structures susceptible to the impact of flood and debris, advancing the well-being of the public through development of resilient coastlines and communities.

Project data will be archived and made publicly available in campus data repositories and in the NSF-supported Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure Data Depot (https://www.DesignSafe-ci.org).

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.