Project Types

 

New Proposals

Contact PI Jennifer Bridge to set up a webconference with the team. We will discuss the concept, how our facility can integrate into the experiment design, and assign a liason from the investigator team to work with you every step of the way to get your proposal submitted.

The User Fees / Recharge Rates may be downloaded from the link below:

University of Florida NHERI User Rates 2022

Enhancement Projects (for Existing Projects)

Looking to enhance an existing NSF project? We can help you design and execute a standalone project that expands the scope of your existing project if you can cover the cost of materials and supplies. Contact PI Jennifer Bridge to set up a webconference with the team. 

New Projects

Once the project is funded, we will work with the investigators on the following items:

  1. Research Scope and Specimen Design—Outline research scope, goals, and proposed approach. Incorporate structural design calculations including assumptions, material properties, and boundary conditions
  2. Material Procurement and Equipment (Business administrator)—Identify consumable items (materials and supplies used to construct specimen or one-time use instruments such and surface bonded strain gages) and whether these will be purchased directly by the Project personnel or by the EF. Identify machine shop equipment, welding equipment, hand tools, etc. that might be needed.
  3. Safety (Site Operations and Safety Officer)—Identify potential hazards and risks that might be encountered during the project such as construction operations, equipment usage, or chemical hazards. Provide procedures and methods to manage these. Project personnel will be required to have appropriate safety training prior to being allowed access to EF.
  4. Project Schedule (Site Operations)—Project schedule will define the key project activities and milestones including Design, Procurement, Construction, Instrumentation, Telepresence, Testing, Demolition, Data Management, and Closeout. Project schedule will include kick-off and close-out meetings along with meetings prior to the start of key activities such as specimen construction, instrumentation and data acquisition, and testing. Periodic meetings will also be scheduled. Video conferencing facilities are available to help offset travel costs.
  5. Specimen Construction (Site Operations)—Special instructions regarding fabrication, assembly, lifting, and moving. Identify personnel for specific tasks.
  6. Quality Assurance Plan (Site Operations)—Establish standards for construction of specimens including material properties, tolerances, appearance standards, and other important facets that might be applicable.  Establish who will be inspecting and approving work conducted by either EF personnel or outside contractors and their qualifications. Provide details for checking highly specialized components.
  7. Rigging/moving specimens (Site Operations)—Specimens that need to be moved are required to have a rigging plan including appropriate lifting locations, structural calculations showing that lifting inserts have an adequate factor of safety, special rigging requirements, and instructions for lifting and landing if the specimen needs to be rotated during lifting.
  8. Instrumentation (Instrumentation Engineer)—Data acquisition requirements outlined in detail including the number of channels, acquisition rate, data to be displayed during the test. Each instrument will be identified along with its specifications and location on the specimen. Outline whether Project or EF personnel will be installing instrumentation. If instrumentation outside the EF will be used, identify and describe such instrumentation.
  9. Telepresence (Cyber-Infrastructure Engineer)—Identify telepresence capability needed during construction and testing phases of the project.
  10. Computing and Data curation (Cyber-Infrastructure Engineer)—Provide outline of data handling and curation plan as well as EF computing facilities needed.
  11. Testing (Site Operations)—Indicate the loading sequence and timing, anticipated failure loads and expected behavior. Provide plans for visual observation. Physical contact with the specimen during loading will be indicated.
  12. Demolition (Site Operations)—Provide a schematic of the specimens and a demolition sequence. Include weights of disassembled components and suggestions regarding lifting and transporting.
  13. Risk Management (Site Operations)—Project PI shall review the EF RMP and create a project risk management plan (PRMP). The PRMP will address the potential for delays in construction, fabrication, procurement and testing, and include contingency plans for these risks.

Payload Projects

The University of Florida's NHERI EF provides opportunities to integrate payload projects within existing or scheduled host projects. A current list of active and scheduled projects are listed online by the Network Coordination Office (NCO).

Researchers interested in submitting a payload project proposal to the UF NHERI EF should refer to the following protocol:

  • Identify the host project that the payload project will augment.
  • Identify which of the experimental resources will be used for the payload project:
    • Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel (BLWT)
    • Multi-Axis Wind Load Simulator (MAWLS)
    • Dynamic Flow Simulator (DFS)
    • High Airflow Pressure Loading Actuator (HAPLA)
    • Spatiotemporal Airflow Pressure Loading Actuator (SPLA)
  • Payload PI must coordinate with and gain initial concept approval from the host project PI for the payload project. This may be done directly with the host project PI or coordinated with the UF NHERI EF. In either case both the host PI and the UF NHERI EF will evaluate the feasibility of the payload project concept. If there is mutual agreement to move forward, the payload PI will be asked to submit a technical proposal for feasibility review.
  • Prepare and submit the payload technical proposal for feasibility review to the UF NHERI EF Operations Manager. The contents should include:
    • Statement of initial concept approval from the host project PI
    • Scope of Work
    • Testing plan
    • Required equipment and other resources
    • Instrumentation plan
    • Data management plan
    • Schedule
    • Preliminary budget and funding source
    • Payload post-test removal plan
  • Payload PI will need to identify and provide resources for any additional costs (e.g., materials & supplies, travel, facility use) associated with payload project.
    • Funding source must be identified
    • Consult with the UF NHERI EF Operations Manager to refine the budget request
  • The right to decline any payload project principally resides with the UF NHERI EF and the host project PI. However, UF NHERI EF reserves the right to decline any payload project.
    • Should the host project PI decline a payload project, justification will be provided to the EF in writing identifying the reason(s) (e.g., payload will impede timely completion of primary project, detracts from overall goals of primary project) for the decision. The EF will then communicate this decision in writing to the payload PI.
    • In cases where the UF NHERI EF declines a potential payload project, written explanation for the decision will be provided to the payload project PI and primary project PI.
  • If the UF NHERI EF and the host project PI approve of the payload technical proposal, a research agreement (or comparable) for all parties (UF NHERI EF, host project PI, payload PI and funding agency) will be developed, agreed upon and executed by all parties involved prior to any use of the UF NHERI EF.
  • Data sharing and archival will conform to NHERI requirements and managed in coordination with DesignSafe-CI.