Presentation by: Dr. Forrest Masters, Associate Dean of Research and Facilities - University of Florida, FLASH Board Director

1. Breakout Panel
Big Science and Engineering
Prepared by Forrest J. Masters
8 November 2018 | FLASH NDRC

2.  Dr. Forrest Masters, P.E., Associate Dean of Research & Facilities –
University of Florida/FLASH Board Director – Field Reconnaissance into
Hurricane Landfall
 Dr. Anne Cope, Senior Vice President Research and Chief Engineer,
Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety – Wildfire Ignition:
Leveraging Scientific Research to be Better Prepared in CA
 Ipek Bensu Manav – Research Assistant, MIT Concrete Sustainability
Hub – A New Approach to Building a Neighborhood Scale Resilience
Assessment
 Dr. David O. Prevatt, PE, Associate Professor, Department of Civil and
Coastal Engineering, University of Florida – Tornado Research
 Evan Reis, Executive Director and Co-Founder – US Resiliency Council
Today’s agenda

3.  To understand why we need to
go into the field, we must start
with what we do in the lab…
Field reconnaissance into hurricanes

4. Tools of the trade in natural hazard
engineering and science
Seismic engineers
use the shake table
Coastal engineers
use the wave tank
Blast/impact
engineers
use the shock tube
…what about wind engineers?

5. Full-Scale Wind Tunnels
(more to come from Dr. Anne Cope, SVP, IBHS)

6. SLIDE
6
Model-Scale Wind Tunnels

7. Vaneaxial Fan Bank
Screens
Roughness Element Grid
Turntable
Development Section
Test Section
Honeycomb
Irwin Spires
Airflow Airflow
Operating
Principle

8.  Computer controlled terrain generator
 48 RS-485 communication busses
 1116 integrated stepper motor drives
 Rapidly configures in 90 seconds to produce a
range of target exposures
Terraformer
NSF MRI CMMI
1428954

10. Mean (average) velocity profile vs. height
Marine >>>>>>>>>> Open >>>>>>>>>> Suburban

11. Real Home
Aerial photo
with
surrounding
houses
Geometrically
Similar Scale
Models
Field
documentation
of surrounding
houses
Component
& Cladding
Loads
[Ex.1] Bluff-body aerodynamics

12. • Webster, G.A., D.A. Agdas, F.J. Masters and C.L. Cook, 2013: Prior Storm Experience
Moderates Water Surge Perception and Risk. PLOS ONE, 8(5): e62477.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062477.
• Agdas, D., G.D. Webster and F.J. Masters, 2012: Wind speed perception and risk.
PLOS ONE, 7(11): e49944. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049944.
[Ex.2] Psychosocial impacts

13. [Ex.3] Topographic wind speed up
 Can double the wind velocity relative to the same flow in
flat terrain
 Implicated as a damage enhancer following Hurricanes
Georges (1999) and Maria (2017)

14. SLIDE
14
Elevation along Maria’s track
650 m (2133 ft)

15. Yabucoa
Satellite Urban Areas
Elevation Slope
Curvatur
e
Rugosity
Consider the geomorphic complexity of
the landfall region …

16. Study regions
Zone VII Zone XIZone X
Utuado
Aibonito
Culebra
Vieque
Yabucoa
Humucao

17. SLIDE
17
• Up to 75 locations on each model are measured
• 3D velocity data are collected at 25 m and 500 m (in full-scale
coordinates) for 16 wind directions

18. Model fabrication
 Converting bare-earth surface coordinates at a resolution of 1/3 arc-
second (~10 m) referenced to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988
(NAVD88) into toolpaths that a heavy-duty CNC machine reads to route
foam sheets under three-axis motion control
 Foam sheets are joined and layered to make the topographic model

19. SLIDE
19
Yabucoa
Instrument Gantry
Turntable
Model
Cobra
Probe
Vaneaxial Fan Bank

20. Cobra Probe
measuring 3D
surface flows at 8
m AGL (full-scale)

21.  All of these research activities
require fundamental
knowledge about how extreme
surface winds behave in both
time and space

22. Bringing it back to meteorology…
MESOSCALE
2 – 102 km
SYNOPTIC SCALE
102 -103 km
MICROSCALE
< 2 km
t r o p i c a l · m e t e o r o l o g y
w i n d · e n g i n e e r i n g
c a t a s t r o p h e m o d e l i n g

23. 5 m
3 m
Florida Coastal Monitoring Program

24. Hurricane Irma (2017) | Naples, Florida

25. Hurricane Michael (2018)

26. Hurricane Michael (2018)
Tyndall
Mexico Beach

28.  But we still have BIG gaps in
our knowledge

29. Hurricane Harvey (2017) | Fulton (near Rockport), Texas

30. Kilometer scale, 30+ m/s variations. Why??
Hurricane Harvey (2017) | Fulton (near Rockport), Texas

31. Hurricane Harvey
(2017)
C-Band radar
data synthesis
produced by the
University of
Oklahoma (M.
Biggerstaff)

32.  ~Twenty years of field reconnaissance has produced a
wealth of ‘ground truth’
 However, engineers and meteorologists continue to talk
past each other with regard to how we predict/hindcast
surface wind speeds
 Study is still required on …
 The effect of features aloft on the surface wind field
 Using (operational) numerical weather prediction models to
predict wind speeds over land
Final remarks