Coastal and inland infrastructure systems are increasingly exposed to compound and sequential hazards,
including hurricane wind, storm surge, waves, and flooding. This research thrust advances
physics-based, damage-conditioned modeling frameworks that capture how hazard loading and
infrastructure capacity evolve together, enabling realistic performance assessment and risk-informed design.
Core Research Focus
- Coupled wind–wave–surge–flood loading characterization
- Fluid–structure interaction (FSI) and aero/hydro-dynamics
- Damage-conditioned loading and progressive failure modeling
- Nonstationary storm evolution and demand modeling
- Validated computational pipelines for diverse infrastructure types
What Has Been Done
- Developed physics-based vulnerability assessment frameworks for compound hurricane hazards
- Established high-fidelity finite element models to quantify progressive damage and failure mechanisms
- Investigated wind–surge interaction effects and damage-sensitive demand amplification
- Advanced methodologies that improve realism beyond independent-hazard assumptions
What We Are Doing Now
- Building hazard-to-load simulation pipelines (CFD/FSI + reduced-order surrogates)
- Developing damage-conditioned load updating strategies for progressive failure analysis
- Extending multi-hazard mechanics across buildings, bridges, coastal defenses, and lifelines
Strategic Plan
- Develop scalable, validated multi-hazard load-generation workflows for infrastructure portfolios
- Enable closed-loop hazard–damage–load feedback modeling to capture evolving exposure
- Transition high-fidelity mechanics into scalable tools via hybrid physics–AI surrogates
- Integrate outputs with lifeline network resilience and community-scale recovery modeling
How This Connects
This thrust provides the mechanics foundation for DM2L’s research program and directly supports
hybrid physics–AI reliability modeling, lifeline resilience (power/transportation), interdependency analysis,
and community resilience planning.