DesignSafe Radio

Note: This podcast interview was recorded before the CFS10 shake table tests, which took place in June and July of 2025.In this episode, earthquake engineers Tara Hutchinson, of UC San Diego, and Ben Schafer, of Johns Hopkins University, explain how they collect data from the CFS10 shake table tests. 750 sensors monitor the 10-story steel-framed structure as it is subjected to simulated earthquakes; sensors range from accelerometers to drones filming video. Partners in CFS10 instrumentation include the California Strong Motion Instrumentation program and CalTech, who installed valuable sensor systems on the structure. Hutchinson and Schafer discuss data from non-structural components, vital for understanding building re-occupation, and they cover important nuances – such as data from prior component testing, including hybrid simulations – which are necessary precursors to large-scale shake table testing – which validate earlier findings.Expect to hear initial findings from CFS10 testing in September 2025, when Hutchinson and Schafer will be presenting papers. Data from the CFS10 tests will be publicly available on the NHERI DesignSafe Data Depot within a year. Although it can take years for engineering research to be adopted into official building codes, Hutchinson and Schafer explain that engineers in the earthquake-prone state of California are quicker to adopt peer reviewed findings. 

Note: This podcast interview was recorded before the CFS10 shake table tests, which took place in June and July of 2025. In this episode, earthquake engineers Tara Hutchinson, of UC San Diego, and Ben Schafer, of Johns Hopkins University, discuss the long-term nature of seismic engineering research. The CFS10 structure currently on the UC San Diego shake table represents over a decade of steel-framed component testing. On the strength of that research, Hutchinson and Schafer built the CFS10 structure to ten stories, four floors above current building code. That’s an unabashed goal of the landmark CFS10 project: to advance building code for steel-framed buildings in seismic zones.

 Note: This podcast interview was recorded before the CFS10 shake table tests, which took place in June 2025 at UC San Diego. The landmark NSF-funded Cold-formed Steel 10 research project, CFS10, is evaluating the seismic performance of tall buildings framed with sheet steel members and modules. The capstone test: a 10-story CFS building on the UC San Diego shake table.CSF10 lead investigators Tara Hutchinson, professor of engineering at UC San Diego, and Ben Schafer, professor at Johns Hopkins University, provide the details on cold-formed steel: Cold-formed steel is formed at room temperature.It’s strong, light, and has a low carbon footprint.Most U.S. sheet steel is produced from recycled material.Many industries rely on CFS as a light, strong building material. The CFS10 project culminates decades of research by Hutchinson and Schafer, including projects with two-story and 6-story buildings, which they discuss in detail.LEARN MORE: Tara Hutchinson’s CFS shake table videos https://www.youtube.com/@TCHutchinson Cold-formed steel for seismic resilience? It’s on the tablehttps://designsafe-ci.org/community/news/2025/may/cold-formed-steel-for-seismic-resilience-its-on-the-table/ Official CFS-NHERI: 10-Story Building Capstone Test Programhttps://cfs10.ucsd.edu/ DesignSafe Radio interview with Ben Schafer, May 2025https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwKAiwBOGS4 Learn more about cold-formed steel: Cold-Formed Steel Research Consortiumhttps://cfsrc.org/ Cold-formed Steel Engineers Institutehttps://www.cfsei.org Build Steel, the steel-framing industry association https://buildsteel.org

University of Florida Professor and research engineer Nina Stark dives into the logistics of post-hurricane data collection. In 2024, as part of the Nearshore Extreme Events Reconnaissance (NEER) team, Stark deployed to the west coast of Florida before and after Hurricane Helene. As she tells her story, we understand how reconnaissance deployments work – with so many uncertainties -- and how anyone can get involved. Stark urges students and early-career researchers to join an Extreme Events group and connect with members.

Specializing in geotechnical engineering and coastal science, Nina Stark studies soil mechanics and soil responses to coastal and riverine stresses -- like hurricanes and related flooding. During hurricane season, you will find her in the field, collecting perishable data with NSF-supported extreme events reconnaissance teams. Today, she talks about recon missions, the importance of good datasets, and the types of data EER teams collect, including erosion, scour and sediment deposition, and water levels. 

Johns Hopkins earthquake engineer and cold-formed steel researcher Ben Schafer introduces the NHERI CFS10 project underway at the NHERI UC San Diego shake table facility. Tara Hutchinson, Schafer’s co-PI on the project, is a research engineer at UC San Diego. (We will meet Hutchinson in an upcoming episode.) The CFS10 shake table experiment caps off a long-term collaboration between NSF researchers and industry. The goal: to understand seismic performance of taller cold-formed steel buildings. The structure on the shake table mimics an apartment building or hotel; it exceeds current height and system limits – which will help the team understand how far engineers can go designing for CFS structural elements, subsystems, and non-structural elements, like stairs, gas lines and sprinkler systems. The CFS10 shake table tests are slated for early June, 2025. Follow along on the UCSD live cameras: https://nheri.ucsd.edu/live-cams

The seemingly outsized strength of cold-formed steel is not well-known. In this episode, earthquake engineer Ben Schafer, Johns Hopkins University, describes a research-industry collaboration with the automotive industry resulting in code changes for high-strength sheet-steel. Sheet steel has also been successfully tested in flooring systems. The upcoming CFS10 shake table test at UC San Diego is the high-rise building test for cold-formed steel. Schafer addresses misconceptions that structural engineers have regarding CFS: Basically: cold-formed steel looks too thin to be strong. However, with high-strength sheet steel, deformations do not correlate to lack of strength, which is something that automotive and aircraft engineers have long understood.

Meet Johns Hopkins University engineer Ben Schafer, authority on cold-formed steel (CFS), also known as sheet steel or thin steel. Schafer explains that CFS is both strong and ductile – and therefore a remarkably high-performance structural framing material. Builders use CFS in a variety of ways – including as building-frame members, much like timber. Schafer’s research centers on CFS as structural framing to resist wind and earthquake loading. Thin and lightweight, CFS members comprise relatively little material; in the US, all cold-formed steel is made from recycled materials.

Research engineer Erica Fischer wraps up by noting that engineers, such as those in the NSF NHERI natural hazards community, are working on multiple fronts to leverage their skills and knowledge to reduce damage from future urban-wildland conflagrations.Follow Erica Fischer on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/fischererica/And on the X platform:https://x.com/erica_fischer

On the policy level, states first must define and map the wildland-urban interface; then states formally define risk-categories and mitigations required. Examples: clearing combustible material within five feet around the house and updating roof and siding with non-combustible materials. Fischer details these steps and ways research engineers seek to simplify risk-reduction for homeowners. 

To understand damage, engineers examine things like water-system piping. To understand the fire itself, they gather physical clues that help them determine “heat flux,” or fire intensity. They collect data such as distance and direction between structures, siding and roofing material, and the constituency of vegetation or structures adjacent the house. 

Interview with Oregon State University research engineer Erica Fischer. As wildfires increasingly affect communities and civil infrastructure, structural engineers apply their expertise in interdependent lifeline systems and structures. Fischer says engineers are primed to investigate “urban conflagrations” in all phases, including community adaptation and mitigation. She cites research findings from the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, CA, which led to valuable new understandings about water pipeline contamination.

University of Florida engineer Brian Phillips describes the procedure for installing the Sentinel mobile weather station directly on the beach. Assembly starts with drilling a 20-foot auger hole. Once the foundation is secure, the team raises the 33-foot carbon-steel-fiber mast, fully instrumented. The setup resists wind and wave impacts. During the hurricane, the station sends data in real time to servers at University of Florida. This year, the team deployed the Sentinel during Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Thanks to NSF MRI funding, the team will continue improving the design and build several more Sentinels.

University of Florida engineer Brian Phillips updates us on NSF-funded efforts to capture vital data during landfalling hurricanes. For decades, UF researchers have deployed mobile weather stations. Now, Phillips describes the newly designed Sentinel weather station. The 33 feet tall tower, anchored 20 feet into the shoreline, can withstand a Category 5 hurricane, including 16-foot surge and breaking waves. During Hurricane Helene, the Sentinel gathered data on wind speeds, surge, and the water’s chemical and biological constituency.

The goal of the proposed NICHE facility: To understand the joint destructive forces of wind and waves —at full scale — in order to design infrastructure capable of resisting damage from hurricanes, tornadoes, surge flooding, and related natural hazards. Among its capabilities, NICHE will enable: testing full-scale residential structures to failure; testing protective capabilities of natural elements such as vegetation; testing of “gray” structures structures like seawalls and breakwaters; investigations and modeling of coastal processes, including sediment transport. This future NSF-funded research laboratory is called the “National Full-Scale Testing Infrastructure for Community Hardening in Extreme Wind, Surge, and Wave Events,” or NICHE.

Plans are afoot to build the world’s largest wind-wave research lab, capable of generating 200 MPH hurricane winds and 5-meter-high waves. This NSF-funded facility will enable full-scale investigations into structural and coastal resilience — and a secure future in the face of destructive natural hazards. On today’s show, Florida International University wind engineer Arindam Chowdhury joins us to describe this facility, the National Full-Scale Testing Infrastructure for Community Hardening in Extreme Wind, Surge, and Wave Events — or NICHE, for short.About NICHE. The NICHE lab will have a 20-fan array capable of generating 200 MPH winds, that’s a Cat 6 hurricane — as well as generating transient winds like tornadoes and downbursts. NICHE’s enormous wind field will enable testing of full-scale two-story structures. It will have a 500-meter-long wave flume and be capable of generating five-meter-high waves. Significantly, the NICHE team is incorporating facility protocols for researchers to deliver expedient, real-world impact. 

Geotech engineer Diane Moug is an authority on microbially induced desaturation, known as “MID.” This technique, developed at Arizona State University, prevents soils from liquefying in an earthquake. Moug describes how microbes desaturate soils, the benefits of the process, and her own, ongoing experiments underway in the Pacific Northwest. These include a site in Oregon’s Critical Energy Infrastructure hub – which is dangerously situated on liquefiable soil.

Obtaining an NSF CAREER Award is a milestone for academics in the sciences. Early-career geotechical engineer and researcher Diane Moug shares her experiences writing and applying for – and then (finally) successfully winning, a CAREER Award.

The cone penetration test (CPT) is a standard tool for geotechnical engineers; it's used for measuring soil sheer strength, stress history and type. Leveraging her NSF CAREER award, Portland State U researcher Diane Moug plans to improve the CPT, so engineers can make better interpretations of CPT data. Moug will employ NHERI at UC Davis centrifuges, numerical modeling, and lab experimentation.

CHEER researchers focus on understanding decision-making among all the players involved in sustaining a resilient coastal community. Davidson details how stakeholders – insurers, government agencies, and residents -- have different, reasonable, and conflicting goals. CHEER’s goal is to find policy solutions that will manage hazard risks as well as ensure economic development in coastal communities vulnerable to hurricanes. It’s a new approach to building a sustainable disaster risk management system in the U.S. Subscribe to the CHEER newsletter https://www.drc.udel.edu/cheer-chronicle-announcement-june-2024/ Follow CHEER on LInkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/cheer-hub/posts/?feedView=all CHEERHub website https://www.drc.udel.edu/cheer/ Read about the NHERI-CHEER partnershiphttps://www.designsafe-ci.org/community/news/2024/july/nheri-partners-cheer-hub-hurricane-decision-making-framework/ CHEERHub’s NSF award summaryhttps://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2209190&HistoricalAwards=false Rachel Davidson is an accomplished academic and research engineer. Discover more about her career and work:https://ccee.udel.edu/faculty/rachel-davidson/