Abstract
The NHERI Lehigh Experimental Facility, as part of the NSF funded Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) site, was established in 2016 as an open-access facility. This facility enables researchers to conduct state-of-art research on natural hazard mitigation in civil infrastructure systems, including high performance numerical and physical testing to improve the resilience and sustainability of the civil infrastructure against natural hazards. The facility has the unique ability to conduct real-time multi-directional hybrid simulation (RTHS) on large-scale structural systems using 3D nonlinear numerical models combined with large-scale physical models of structural and non-structural components. The Lehigh Experimental Facility processes testbeds that include a testbed for testing lateral load resisting system characterization testbed, a non-structural component multi-directional dynamic loading simulator, full-scale and reduced-scale damper testbeds, a tsunami and storm surge debris impact force testbed, and a soil-foundation structure interaction testbed. This paper describes the infrastructure and capabilities of the NHERI Lehigh Experimental Facility. Developments by the facility in advancing large-scale RTHS are given. Examples of research projects performed by users of the facility are then provided, including large-scale RTHS of steel frame buildings with magneto-rheological (MR) dampers and nonlinear viscous dampers subject to strong earthquake ground motions; 3D multi-hazard large-scale RTHS of tall steel buildings subject to multi-directional wind and earthquake ground motions; characterization of a novel semi-active friction device based on band brake technology; and testing of cross-laminated timber self-centering coupled wall-floor diaphragm-gravity systems involving multi-directional loading.
Highlights
The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported distributed, multi-user, open-access national research infrastructure
Several experimental tests have been performed recently using the equipment and algorithms at the NHERI Lehigh Experimental Facilities (EF), including (1) large-scale real-time multi-directional hybrid simulation (RTHS) of a threestory steel frame building equipped with magneto-rheological (MR) dampers subject to strong earthquake ground motions; (2) large-scale RTHS of a reduced-strength steel building with non-linear viscous dampers subject to strong earthquake ground motions; (3) 3D multi-hazard large-scale RTHS of a tall steel frame building with non-linear viscous dampers subject to multi-directional wind and earthquake ground motions; (4) characterization of a novel semi-active friction device based on band brake technology; and (5) performance testing of crosslaminated timber self-centering coupled wall-floor diaphragmgravity systems subjected to multi-directional seismic loading
The Banded Rotary Friction Damper (BRFD) force-displacement and force-velocity responses are plotted in Figure 12, where the results show that the prototype BRFD is capable of obtaining a damping force of 22.2 kN using an input force of Fapplied = 311 N, resulting in a force amplification ratio (FAR) of 72
Summary
The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported distributed, multi-user, open-access national research infrastructure It consists of twelve components, including the Network Coordination Office (NCO), the Computational Modeling and Simulation Center (SimCenter), the DesignSafe-Cyberinfrastructure. The NHERI Lehigh EF is an open-access facility that provides experimental resources for state-of-art research on natural hazard mitigation in civil infrastructure systems. The NHERI Lehigh EF provides a unique portfolio of experimental equipment, instrumentation, testbeds, and simulation protocols for large-scale multi-directional testing. The facility’s experimental resources include a strong floor, multidirectional reaction wall, static and dynamic actuators, and test algorithms to enable researchers to conduct large-scale multidirectional dynamic testing and real-time hybrid simulation.
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