The earth shudders, and a stacked freeway overpass
collapses onto the deck below, snapped in two like a
broken chocolate bar. A docile river morphs into a roiling
torrent that surges over its banks and engulfs everything
in its path. Encrusted with frail shacks that house
a teeming city’s poorest residents, an entire
hillside melts away in a giant mudslide, burying the
occupants and their dreams of a better life.
The aftermath of a natural disaster evokes sympathy, relief money, volunteer assistance, and a sincere hope that something can be done to prevent or abate such catastrophes. Other crises—nascent, silent, unobtrusive—rarely disturb the consciousness of most people, for the problems and challenges of everyday life frequently trump long-term perspective.
Fortunately, a cadre of researchers around the world remains vigilant, dedicated to predicting, preventing, and minimizing disasters in the making. Recognizing the complexity of existing and developing problems, these scientists and engineers are tearing down disciplinary and institutional walls that divide them in favor of collaborative ventures.
At the University of Minnesota, multidisciplinary research is nothing new,
and neither is the commitment to outreach and knowledge
transfer. Here the ivory tower comes equipped with an
unlocked door and a bridge to the community.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) recognized the University’s continuing leadership by awarding it two major grants that will fund bold interdisciplinary initiatives in earthquake engineering and in a brand-new field—surface process science.
In February 2001 the civil engineering department received a four-year, $6.47 million NSF grant to purchase large-scale equipment for the new Multi-Axial Subassemblage Testing (MAST) experimentation site, which will test the ability of structures and their components to withstand earthquakes and other extreme events. Funded through the George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), the MAST laboratory will be one of 16 networked facilities nationwide. When completed, they will be connected via Internet2 to allow researchers worldwide to obtain data from or participate in experiments at any NEES facility. The University grant is the single largest equipment award made through the NEES program.
In September 2002, St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL) and five partner institutions received a five-year, $19.3 million NSF grant to create a National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED), one of six new NSF Science and Technology Centers announced last year. NCED, which opened in September, will bring together researchers in civil engineering, geology, ecology, and biology in a remarkable collaboration to study the processes that shape the earth’s surface. SAFL, the center’s lead institution, received $14.1 million, among the largest awards in its history.
“The grants are the result of hard work for many months by a number of people dedicated to bringing these projects to the University,” says Professor John Gulliver, head of the civil engineering department. “Both of these projects were led by researchers with a great deal of enthusiasm and commitment. They knew what they wanted to achieve, and they thought through every detail of their proposals.”
NSF officials agree with that assessment. “The
teams at the University of Minnesota developed their
proposals with excellent vision and strength in disciplinary
expertise, interdisciplinary commitment, and management
capabilities. These were all very strong areas highly
valued in the peer review process,” says Priscilla
Nelson, NSF division director for civil and mechanical
systems.
Another deciding factor was the University’s dedication to the projects. In both cases, the University pledged to provide resources and dollars that would complement the NSF awards, a trend that Gulliver predicts will become the norm for research in this country.
“This is a very exciting time for the University,” says civil engineering
professor Steven Crouch, IT’s associate dean for
finance and planning. “These grants will raise
the awareness of what the University has to offer while
also providing our researchers and administrators with
the basis to help shape the future world of scientific
research.”
MAST makes it big
More than a third of the world’s most destructive earthquakes on record—those that resulted in 50,000 deaths or more—occurred during the last century, a period when millions of people worldwide moved to densely populated areas in search of a better life. High-density living spells disaster when buildings, roads, bridges, and other structures can’t withstand seismic forces. In the developing world, shoddy building construction in unstable, high-risk areas compounds the effects of natural disasters. Death tolls and economic losses can reach staggering proportions.
Architects and developers are more aware of the need to build earthquake-resistant large-scale structures, but there isn’t enough research available to guide them, according to Gulliver. Traditionally, earthquake engineering research has had to use small models and computer simulations that are helpful but far from perfect.
“It’s difficult to scale down things like
forces on buildings. You do the best you can, but scaling
up doesn’t work well,” he says.
Through the NEES collaboration, NSF intends to fill that information gap and to restructure the way earthquake engineering research is conducted in this country. The program will shift research from its current reliance on isolated physical experiments to investigations built on integrated physical models, databases, and model-based simulations—an approach that will provide a comprehensive assessment of structural performance.
By 2004 NSF plans to invest a total of $81.9 million through NEES to develop the network of 16 sites that will share information and advance cross-facility research. The NEES initiative also will develop a single national repository for structural engineering experimental and computational data. The system will begin operating next year and will continue as a distributed shared resource through 2014.
The University contributed $4.8 million to build a five-story structure that houses its MAST laboratory, one of the system’s six large-scale structural testing facilities. Completed last November ahead of schedule and under budget, the building shell—located on the northeast edge of the Minneapolis campus—has a seven-foot-thick strong floor as well as two seven-foot-thick L-shaped strong walls that stand 35 feet high. It can accommodate a test structure 25 feet high and 20 feet wide. Installation and testing of equipment will continue through spring and summer 2003, with an opening event planned for fall.
The laboratory’s unique system will impose more realistic multidirectional loading conditions on test structures than existing facilities can. Researchers also will be able to apply rotations and twist the structure to simulate overturning or bending.
“The facility will feature 12 hydraulic cylinders, eight of which will
be capable of delivering 880,000 pounds of force in
both horizontal directions while simultaneously delivering
1.3 million pounds of force vertically,” says
Arturo Schultz, associate professor of civil engineering.
“No other facilities in the world will come close
in terms of capacity to simulate earthquake forces.”
Research applications will focus on performance-based design, says civil engineering professor Catherine French, principal investigator for the University’s share of the project.
“Typically we like to test large-scale pieces of buildings to understand
how those structures will behave in earthquakes,”
she says. “If they fail, we can then develop ways
to retrofit existing buildings to prepare them for earthquakes.
Also, we want to test new materials and construction
methods to codify how structural engineers might make
use of our findings in new buildings.”
Rather than relying exclusively on tests of full-scale models, however, researchers will work to create the best computer simulations possible for earthquake modeling. In many cases they will develop a computer model first and then refine it using the MAST system.
“NSF’s major emphasis is that we use [simulation] as the primary tool and use the models to validate the simulation,” says French. Among the MAST researchers who bring expertise in modeling and simulation are civil engineering associate professors Carol Shield and Robert Dexter.
The MAST system’s data-gathering and data-sharing capacities will be able to capture more information than similar projects have yielded. Eight video cameras, eight still cameras on robotic arms, and various sensors will create a visual, audio, and sensory record of experiments. Interfaced with a Web-based graphical visualization and control system, time-coded data will be transferred almost simultaneously to remote locations via Internet2. Researchers will be able to videoconference and receive data in real-time, and they’ll likely be able to control cameras and other equipment remotely. Faculty from electrical engineering, computer engineering, and computer science helped develop this aspect of the project.
“This will be state-of-the-art use of the Internet,” says Doug Ernie, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.
“The idea is to get a reasonable facsimile of being here when you are really across the country. Researchers could sit at a computer and access the data, control the apparatus, and communicate via videoconferences and computer chat. A remote principal investigator could communicate with graduate students and staff while setting up, running, and analyzing an experiment.”
Data sharing is key
NSF based the NEES initiative on a cooperative model that it believes will speed the development of earthquake-resistant structures.
“This is part of [an effort] by NSF to create an infrastructure of research
facilities we don’t have in the United States,”
explains Schultz. “It will open the door to people
who don’t have access to sophisticated labs like
these. They can simply observe. They can download the
test data, video, and photos, and they can use the simulation
tools to consider different scenarios when they test.”
The system’s combined capabilities are generating excitement among civil engineering researchers who study earthquake phenomena. “It offers experimental capabilities that we don’t presently have,” says Gregory Deierlein, professor of structural engineering at Stanford University. “A lot of the simulations we use are 20 to 30 years old. Now we will be able to test large structures in more realistic, controlled settings.”
Data will be archived for future studies, a fact that appeals to Sharon Wood, professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas in Austin, who may submit a proposal to use the facility for studies of reinforced concrete.
“Everyone who uses this has agreed they will put the data into a repository,” says Wood. “Therefore, if I’m developing analytical models, I can get this information, so I don’t have to call 14 researchers and then find out that I can’t read their computer files.”
“These are expensive experiments with a lot of data,” adds Deierlein. “The network allows us to archive and access data, so people around the world could benefit from one experiment. It’s like archaeology—we want to be able to look at today’s data in 20 years.”
The MAST facility and its research data also will be available to investigators from disciplines other than engineering and geology. For example, it could be used in studies examining the economic and social impact of large-scale earthquakes.
Jerry Hajjar, associate professor of civil engineering, believes the University is the ideal spot for an earthquake laboratory. “Consulting firms in Minnesota increasingly are seeking national and international projects, which means they need engineers who know earthquake-resistant design,” he says. “Also, we have a strong information technology component in the University’s Digital Technology Center.”
The facility’s influence will extend far beyond Minnesota, attracting researchers from around the world—a prospect that Gulliver relishes. “Future research will be based on this model, so the MAST laboratory is a prime opportunity for the University to demonstrate leadership,” he says.
NCED: Wellspring of surface process science
For 65 years, researchers at the world-renowned SAFL have dedicated their efforts to solving major problems in hydraulic engineering and water resources.
Tucked away on a small island in the Mississippi River, just downstream from Minneapolis’ historic St. Anthony Falls, the premier facility is the only laboratory in the world that can tap into a natural waterfall to provide virtually unlimited water flow for experiments in everything from river engineering to sediment formation.
Over the past two decades, SAFL has expanded its focus to include interdisciplinary research on water and its interaction with the environment. A modern computational network, field projects, and new labs in water quality and bioengineering complement SAFL’s existing experimental facilities.
During this period, the number of large-scale facilities for experimental water-related research declined dramatically. Full-scale water flow research gave way to computerized models and equipment that requires minimal space. SAFL is now one of about a half-dozen U.S. laboratories that offer large-scale experimental facilities for engineering and geophysical fluid dynamics.
Valuable as they are, however, computers and models won’t make large-scale facilities obsolete.
“You can’t understand everything with models and equations, so you need to test hypotheses under controlled conditions,” says Distinguished McKnight University Professor Efi Foufoula-Georgiou, SAFL director and NCED codirector. “Likewise, research efforts of that magnitude and scope are difficult to do with small grants.”
In choosing SAFL as the center’s lead institution, NSF recognized the laboratory’s creativity and outstanding contributions to water-related research. NCED is the brainchild of SAFL faculty who envisioned an interdisciplinary center where researchers could study the processes that change the earth’s surface over time. That great idea generated an even better one.
“We realized we could be midwives for a new field that would not be civil [engineering], geology, or ecology but would be surface process science,” says NCED codirector Chris Paola, professor of geology and geophysics.
To further develop the concept, SAFL faculty collaborated with colleagues at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California-Berkeley, and Princeton University who will provide complementary areas of expertise and research facilities. The NCED team includes engineers, geologists, ecologists, biologists, chemists, oceanographers, environmental scientists, and experts from other fields.
“Rachel Carson described sediments as ?a sort of epic poem of the earth,’” says Paola.
“Unfortunately, this poem is written in a language we still can’t always decipher. NCED will be a major step toward developing an integrated, predictive understanding of how our planet’s surface works.”
Four partner institutions—MIT, Princeton, UC-Berkeley, and Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet, Minnesota—received a total of $2.77 million, while the Science Museum of Minnesota received a $2.47 million grant, one of the largest awards in its history. The remainder of the award, $14.1 million, went to SAFL.
The University will give the center $3.2 million in cash over five years along with a $787,699 in-kind match. “This was a big vote of confidence in us by the University,” says civil engineering professor Gary Parker, NCED director. “The cash allocation especially will allow us to do such things as fund minority research positions.”
The one-time renewable NSF grant, combined with the University’s contributions, will fund research in four major areas: landscapes and seascapes; basins; the effects of living things on the development of landscapes and stream channels; and integration of processes that change the shape of the earth’s surface across environments and scales.
NCED researchers will study everything from sediment mechanics and erosion to braided rivers, rainfall, and climate change. Information gained from their work will aid responsible management of landscape resources, including forests, agricultural fields, and recreational areas, and wise development of resources like groundwater and hydrocarbons that are buried in sediments.
Human-induced changes—for example, population pressures on high-risk or environmentally fragile landscapes—are among the most pressing challenges. Population growth in the western and southwestern U.S. has created more developments in areas like Death Valley and the San Fernando Valley, former riverbeds that are prone to flash floods, mudslides, and landslides. Many of the world’s developing and most populous nations are located in regions of high seismic activity.
“These are issues in terms of disaster, in terms of planning,” says Parker.
Aaron Packman, assistant professor in Northwestern University’s civil and environmental engineering department, was one of the first researchers to use the NSF grant money. Packman, who studies the analysis and modeling of environmental transport processes, says the laboratory’s research capabilities were a big draw.
“We have a small lab here [at] Northwestern,
so I came to the University of Minnesota to use the
large facilities,” he says. “There are only
six to eight labs of this size in the country.”
NCED also will generate research opportunities for institutions that might not otherwise be able to fund studies, such as Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College.
“We always opened the lab to others, but now [they can submit] proposals. Now we can give them money and have an engineer available to help them,” explains Karen Campbell, knowledge transfer director with SAFL and NCED.
The center encourages researchers to design their projects within a broad framework. One such study will attempt to determine if growing alfalfa on a riverbank affects erosion, sedimentation, vegetation, and other factors.
“This is multidisciplinary,” says Foufoula-Georgiou. “We look at water, soil, vegetation, biology, biochemistry, and other areas to be able to quantify their interactions in time and space, so we can eventually build predictive models.”
A portion of the NSF grant—$300,000—is reserved for a relatively small but noteworthy expenditure. NCED will seek recommendations from social scientists on research topics of special interest to the general public.
“The bulk of what we’ll do is basic research, but there are certain topics that produce results the public can relate to,” says Parker. “For example, we might look at social issues involved when there is massive flooding of the Mississippi Delta or at the effect global warming has on society.”
Bringing information to the public
As a funding requirement, 30 percent of NCED’s work will be dedicated to outreach and knowledge transfer. Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College and the Science Museum of Minnesota are the center’s partners in these efforts.
NCED is working with the tribal college to identify ways in which they can collaborate. Several programs already in place at the college would mesh very easily with the center’s overall mission.
One strong candidate is the St. Louis River-River Watch
program, a youth-based water-quality monitoring effort
in northeastern Minnesota that’s coordinated by
the college’s Environmental Institute.
Twice each year an estimated 800 secondary school students and teachers from 25 schools collect chemical, physical, and biological data in the St. Louis River watershed and surrounding watersheds. The lower segment of the St. Louis River—the largest U.S. tributary to Lake Superior—is among 43 sites identified by the U.S. and Canadian governments as Great Lakes Areas of Concern.
In most participating schools these activities are integrated into the science curriculum. As students strengthen their scientific skills, they’re also helping communities identify and solve environmental problems. The data collected by the students are compiled, evaluated, and shared among all schools and with state and local communities in a variety of ways.
The Environmental Institute’s wild-rice restoration project and a summer camp program offer other partnership opportunities.
NSF also wants NCED to reach out to minority groups. “At issue to what we do is to manage landscapes, and that’s important to Native American tribes,” says Parker. “As a result we are developing an outreach program for junior colleges and high schools to show Native American students how their interest in the outdoors can relate to careers in science and technology.”
NCED researchers also plan to offer short courses for engineers on such topics as submarine sedimentation and stratigraphy, erosion control, stream rehabilitation, and dam removal. Engineers from industry and government are also eligible for NCED research grants.
The largest and most visible NCED outreach project, however, will be its collaboration with the Science Museum of Minnesota, located in downtown St. Paul. Situated on a bluff with a spectacular view of the Mississippi River below, the museum—noted for its lively educational programming—is a natural fit for NCED.
The museum will create a series of interactive exhibits for a Science Park, to be built on a 1.2-acre section of the river flats adjacent to the museum. No specific exhibits for the outdoor park have been planned yet, but the content will be based on NCED research and will illustrate how water, air, and other forces sculpt the earth’s surface. The park is scheduled to open in 2004.
“I think a partnership between the lab and the science museum will create a very exciting outdoor experience for our visitors,” says Carleen Pieper, the museum’s communications director. “The science museum has always had a focus on environmental education. There are basic levels that most people understand—erosion, for example—but then there are more complicated things, like the effect of storm sewers on the environment. Forces that sculpt the landscape go beyond obvious things, like a stream that overruns its banks now and then. Our exhibits will show that landscapes are also affected by the decisions we make and how we plan for these occurrences.”
The museum will expand its existing youth science center into the Science Park, where young people will serve as guides. Other plans include a summer institute for middle school teachers and the development of outreach programs for schools across the Upper Midwest.
Welcoming the unexpected
Both in concept and practice, the MAST and NCED initiatives will foment creativity. The ingredients are all there: a host of challenging problems, inventive minds, technical expertise, partnerships across disciplines and institutions, state-of-the-art technology, financial support, and an investment in education.
Unique in size and scope, the University’s MAST system will expand large-scale testing capabilities nationally and internationally, and through NEES it will aid a sweeping effort to restructure earthquake engineering research in the U.S.
At NCED, an extraordinary scientific collaboration will oversee the genesis of a new superfield—surface process science—while the center’s education and outreach partners serve the public through creative programs.
It’s an exhilarating time for everyone involved, from program administrators and researchers to the wider scientific community and beyond. Perhaps most exciting of all is the prospect that MAST and NCED will generate significant advances that are virtually unimaginable today.
Parker summarizes their shared hopes for the future: “I’d like to see in 10 years some really important scientific developments, educational developments, and applications that we could not in any way have predicted.”
Given the resources and talent committed to both ventures, it’s going to be a dynamic decade.
