MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of a Real-Time Hybrid Simulation Testing System for Cyber-Physical Research and Training

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award supports the acquisition of a state-of-the-art structural testing instrument. The instrument will enable cyber-physical “hybrid” tests. These tests coordinate the response of a cyber numerical model and a physical experimental test specimen in real time.

In doing so, the instrument better replicates realistic loading conditions. These loading conditions include, for example, the impacts of natural hazards on the nation’s critical infrastructure. The cyber-physical tests conducted with the instrument will help to better understand the performance of innovative infrastructure materials and components.

The structural materials and components validated using the instrument will help to mitigate economic, property, and human losses caused by natural hazards, improving the well-being of individuals in society. The new instrument will transform the way the multidisciplinary MRI team conducts research at the University of Oklahoma (OU), will foster technology transfer with industry, and will promote the development of a globally competitive science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics (STEAM) workforce. The instrument will also be a resource for researchers in the surrounding region.

Addressing the demand for more resilient infrastructure requires an improved basic understanding of the complex behavior and performance of building materials and structural components subject to realistic loading produced by natural hazards. Such loading conditions can be realized using real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) facilitated by the acquired instrument.

Research enabled by the instrument will (1) reveal the physics behind the complex, nonlinear behavior of innovative structural components, (2) quantify their performance in civil (e.g., buildings and bridges) and energy (e.g., solar and wind) applications, (3) advance physics-based mathematical models of such components, and (4) catalyze multidisciplinary and fundamental research involving additive manufacturing, material science, and the arts. The fundamental understanding of these structural materials and components will result in new technologies for resilient infrastructure.

Overall, the RTHS instrument will produce the complex loading conditions needed to advance multidisciplinary research projects.

This project is jointly funded by the Major Instrumentation Research Program (MRI), the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and the Engineering for Civil Infrastructure Program (ECI) in the division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI).

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.