Resilience in Structural Engineering
At Northeastern University, resilience in structural engineering is envisioned as designing built infrastructure to perform safely during a wide range of existing and emerging natural and manmade threats, and then rapidly returning to full operation.
From earthquakes and hurricanes to terror attacks, structures must withstand a multitude of extreme conditions. Our research and teaching about resilience imagines going beyond survivability into viability beyond the event, creating infrastructure that not only withstands collapse under extreme loads, but remains structurally sound without need of demolition following disaster.
These issues grow increasingly pressing as climate change necessitates that future structures withstand more extreme and compounding forces.
Dive Deeper: Redesigning Wind Turbine Platforms
Wind energy is on the precipice of a revolution in the US, and Massachusetts is at the heart of it. With enough offshore wind energy potential to power the country, the east coast is a tantalizing opportunity for industry and policy. However, the hurricane threat off the eastern seaboard poses unique structural challenges for this infrastructure of growing importance. Professor Andy Myers and his team are exploring innovative structural solutions to harnessing the natural forces just off our shores.