National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program

NIST is designated by Congress as one of four agencies comprising the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program^[1] or NWIRP (other agencies are FEMA, NOAA, and NSF), with OSTP as the lead agency. Pending legislation in both the U.S. House (H.R.3479) and Senate (S.646) would move the lead agency function to NIST.  This project provides leadership of windstorm and coastal inundation impact reduction R&D activities within the Engineering Laboratory.  It also supports the currently required NWIRP interagency coordination and reporting activities, as well as planning activities associated with potentially being designated the lead agency.

[1] Created by the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Act of 2004, PL 108-360.

Objectives:  Lead NIST’s National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program research and development (R&D) to improve model codes, standards, design guidance, and practices for the construction and retrofit of buildings, structures, and lifelines.

What is the new technical idea?  Improve safety and resilience of buildings, structures and lifelines by:

1. supporting the development of instrumentation, data processing, archival capabilities, and standards for the instrumentation and its deployment, to measure wind, wind loading, and other properties of severe wind and structural response;
2. coordinating with other appropriate Federal agencies to make the collected data available to researchers, standards and code developers, and local authorities;
3. supporting the development of tools and methods for the collection of data on the loss of and damage to structures, and data on surviving structures after severe windstorm events;
4. improving knowledge of the impact of severe wind on buildings, structures, lifelines, and communities;
5. developing cost-effective windstorm impact reduction tools, methods, and technologies;
6. working, in conjunction with other appropriate Federal agencies, to support the development of wind standards and model codes;
7. working closely with key stakeholders to promote better building practices, in conjunction with other appropriate Federal agencies; and
   
8. coordinating with the NIST Director of Disaster and Failure Studies Program within the Engineering Laboratory and with the other NWIRP agencies and stakeholders to respond to disaster and failure events following windstorms, including:
9. 1. staffing of study teams;
   2. field data collection studies;
   3. creating and maintaining a database repository related to windstorms;
   4. the performance of the built environment during windstorm events;
   5. associated emergency response and evacuation procedures;
   6. pre-disaster mitigation studies specific to windstorms; and
   7. developing, in consultation with the EL Director of Disaster and Failure Studies, the protocols for coordination of NWIRP and other federal agencies’ and stakeholders' participation in disaster and failure event studies following windstorms.

What is the research plan?  The plan covers the following:

1. NWIRP Statutory Responsibilities and Leadership of NIST NWIRP R&D:
2. 1. complete the draft FY2011-12 NWIRP biennial report to Congress, in collaboration with the other NWIRP agencies (OSTP, FEMA,  NSF,  NOAA);
   2. represent NIST on the Windstorm Working Group of the Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction (within the Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Sustainability, National Science and Technology Council);
   3. complete the Measurement Science Research Roadmap for Windstorm and Coastal  Inundation Impact Reduction – with support from the Applied Technology Council (ATC) NEHRP Task Order contract #26;
   4. align NIST windstorm and coastal inundation impact reduction research with consideration of the recommendations made in the research roadmap (item c), through development of the FY14 Wind Engineering and MultiHazard Failure Analysis and NWIRP project plans; and
   5. lead the National Construction Safety Team to completion of its objectives and final report on the technical investigation of the May 22, 2011 Joplin Missouri Tornado.
3. Technical Activities:
4. 1. Data collection and documentation of hurricane damage to buildings and infrastructure:  Application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to post-storm damage documentation will be investigated and tested, including suitability of UAV types, control systems, telemetry systems, and imagery devices;
   2. Reliability estimates for hurricane and storm damage risk reduction structures: Typical designs of several types of hurricane protection structures, designed in accordance with current guidelines^[2], will be modeled and analyzed to estimate reliability.  Results will be compared to target reliabilities used in other civil works structures; and
   3. Tornado Resilient Design: Develop performance basis for design to resist tornadoes.
      

[2] USACE (2008). Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System Design Guidelines. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District, New Orleans, LA.

Recent Results:

Outcome:

• Draft NIST Measurement Science R&D Roadmap in Windstorm and Coastal Inundation Impact Reduction, to be completed in Q4 of FY12.

Publications:

• Levitan, M.L., Phan, L.T., Kuligowsli, E.D., Lombardo, F.T., and Jorgensen, D.P., "Progress Report National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); Technical Investigation of the May 22, 2011, Tornado in Joplin, Missouri (NISTSP 1139)", November 2012.
  
• Levitan, M.L., Phan, L.T., Kuligowsli, E.D., Lombardo, F.T., and Jorgensen, D.P. "Investigation Plan - National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Technical Investigation of Building and Emergency Communications System Performance in the Joplin, Missouri, Tornado of May 22, 2011", NIST Special Publication 1132, May 2012
• Adams, S.M., Levitan, M.L., Friedland, C.J., High Resolution Imagery Collection Utilizing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for Post-Disaster Studies, accepted for publication in Proceedings, ATC/SEI Hurricane Engineering Conference, to be held October 24-26, 2012 in Miami, FL.
• Yeo, D., Lombardo, F.T., Bannerjee, D., Letvin, E.J., Simiu, E., and  Levitan, M.L., NIST Advances in Computer-Aided and Computational Methods in Wind Engineering, accepted for publication in Proceedings, ATC/SEI Hurricane Engineering Conference, held on October 24-26, 2012 in Miami, FL.
• Fatalities Due to Hurricane Katrina’s Impacts in Louisiana, Ezra Boyd, PhD. Dissertation,  Louisiana State University, August 2011, http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-06092011-084046/ (Marc Levitan- doctoral dissertation committee co-chair)
• A Review of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for Imagery Collection for Disaster Research and Management, Stuart Adams, MS Report, Louisiana State University, May 2011. (Marc Levitan- MSCE committee chair)
• Redesign of LSU’s Storm 1, 10 m Hurricane Tower Data Acquisition and Data Processing Systems, Ty Parrino, MS Report, Louisiana State University, May 2011. (Marc Levitan- MSCE committee chair)

Outputs:

• Workshop to develop NIST Measurement Science R&D Roadmap in Windstorm and Coastal Inundation Impact Reduction, to be held in Q3 of FY12.
• Issuance of Task Order Contract #26 to ATC (under NEHRP IDIQ contract) for development of NIST Measurement Science R&D Roadmap in Windstorm and Coastal Inundation Impact Reduction, awarded September, 2011.
• Submission of Task Order #33  (under NEHRP IDIQ contract) for technical assistance with wind speed mapping (issuance of award anticipated by the end of FY12).

Standards and Codes:

The ASCE/SEI 7 Standard (Minimum Design Loads on Buildings and Other Structures) is the primary U.S. standard for wind loading on buildings and structures. ASCE/SEI 7 is adopted by reference in the International Building Code (IBC) and the International Residential Code (IRC), which are the model codes used by most jurisdictions in the country that enforce building codes. ASCE/SEI 7, IBC, and IRC are the most important and broadly applied codes and standards for wind loads in the US. The ICC 500 standard (ICC/NSSA Standard for the Design and Construction of Storm Shelters )is the only current national standard explicitly addressing shelters used for hurricanes, tornaodes, and other high wind events. These codes and standards are therefore the primary focus.

Both the ASCE/SEI 7 and ICC 500 standards began new revision cycles in Spring of 2012 for their 2016 and 2015 editions, respectively. The Principal Investigator (PI) will develop and submit change proposals based on the Joplin Tornado Investigation recommendations, as warranted, to these two standards by 2014, and to the International Building Code and International Residential Code as warranted  in 2015, for the 2018 editions of those codes. The PI will also work closely with NWIRP staff to develop and submit change proposals to ASCE 7-16 for the new wind maps and other topics described in the Wind Engineering and Mul-Hazard Failure Analysis project description.

Standards committee participation by the PI:

• ASCE/SEI 7-16  Standard: Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures (voting member of Main Committee, General Requirements Subcommittee, and Wind Load Subcommittee)
• ICC 500-2015: ICC/NSSA Standard for the Design and Construction of Storm Shelters (voting member; chair, Structural Design Methodology Working Group; and past committee chair ICC 500:2008).
• ASCE Task Committee on Wind-Induced Forces, of the Petrochemical Committee, Energy Division (committee member and past Chair, 2005-2010).  This committee authored Wind Loads for Petrochemical and Other Industrial Facilities, consisting of guidelines and prestandard for the computation of wind-induced forces on industrial facilities with structural features outside the scope of current codes and standards), ASCE Press, August, 2011.