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Large centrifuge helps researchers mimic effects of Katrina on levees
March 22, 2006Part of nationwide 'co-laboratory' of earthquake engineering facilities, the technology proves critical for studying soils beneath New Orleans
Researchers studying the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the levees of New Orleans used a 150 g-ton centrifuge to model one of New Orleans' levee sections and the hurricane forces that led to its failure. The goal of the test was to learn how layers of peat and clay beneath the levees might have contributed to the failure.
The centrifuge is part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), an interconnected, nationally distributed system of 15 facilities for studying the effects of full-scale earthquake forces on structures and materials.
Tarek Abdoun of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), who led the levee test as part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hurricane Katrina Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force, presented the team's preliminary findings in New Orleans on March 20 at a public meeting of a National Academies committee that is reviewing the study.
During the experiment, the researchers subjected a scaled-down model of the 17th Street Canal levee in New Orleans-complete with local-source peat-to extreme conditions like those experienced during the hurricane on Aug. 29, 2005. The experiment suggested earth sliding along a weak clay layer that underlies a bed of peat directly beneath the levee helped to bring down the 17th Street structure.
The researchers consider the results to be preliminary and will conduct additional tests in the coming weeks.
In addition to supporting experiments like the RPI centrifuge test, NSF has granted some 80 awards to researchers studying the effects of Hurricane Katrina and gathering information that can help prepare for future national disasters.
National Science Foundation
Tarek Abdoun of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), who led the levee test as part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hurricane Katrina Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force, presented the team's preliminary findings in New Orleans on March 20 at a public meeting of a National Academies committee that is reviewing the study.
During the experiment, the researchers subjected a scaled-down model of the 17th Street Canal levee in New Orleans-complete with local-source peat-to extreme conditions like those experienced during the hurricane on Aug. 29, 2005. The experiment suggested earth sliding along a weak clay layer that underlies a bed of peat directly beneath the levee helped to bring down the 17th Street structure.
The researchers consider the results to be preliminary and will conduct additional tests in the coming weeks.
In addition to supporting experiments like the RPI centrifuge test, NSF has granted some 80 awards to researchers studying the effects of Hurricane Katrina and gathering information that can help prepare for future national disasters.
National Science Foundation
Levee Current Events and Levee News RSSReturn of business to New Orleans post-Katrina
LSU Professor and Chair of Environmental Sciences Nina Lam and Professor and Louisiana Real Estate Commission Chair Kelley Pace, along with colleagues from LSU, Tulane University and Texas State University, published the results of a study analyzing business return to New Orleans post-Katrina in the peer reviewed open access journal PLoS ONE, on Wednesday, Aug. 26.
LSU professors publish study analyzing return of businesses to New Orleans after Katrina
LSU Professor and Chair of Environmental Sciences Nina Lam and Professor and Louisiana Real Estate Commission Chair Kelley Pace, along with colleagues from LSU, Tulane University and Texas State University, will publish the results of a study analyzing business return to New Orleans post-Katrina in a Public Library of Science publication.
In the Eye of the Storm: Why some people stayed behind
Hurricane Katrina was the largest natural disaster in U.S. history, claiming the lives of more than 1,800 victims and causing well over $100 billion in damage along the Gulf Coast.
Did Termites Help Katrina Destroy New Orleans Floodwalls?
Three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, people still speculate over causes of the destruction of the city's floodwall system.
On shaky ground: UH Prof finds geological faults threaten Houston
After finding more than 300 surface faults in Harris County, a University of Houston geologist now has information that could be vitally useful to the region's builders and city planners.
Geologist decries floodplain development
Midwesterners have to be wondering: Will April be the cruelest month?
California flood risks are 'disaster waiting to happen,' say University of Maryland engineers
While flooding in California's Central Valley is "the next big disaster waiting to happen," water-related infrastructure issues confront almost every community across the country, according to engineers at the University of Maryland's Clark School of Engineering in separate reports to California officials and in the journal Science.
When the levees fail
"A hard rain's gonna fall..." So the Dylan song went... but when rain and storm surges fall on lands protected by weak levees, this means trouble-big trouble. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were devastating reminders of this frightening fact. How then can we limit trouble when a levee breaches or, better yet, prevent such a break from ever happening again"
Hurricane Katrina evacuees had deep distrust of public health authorities
While investigating the impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans evacuees, a group of UCLA researchers stumbled across something they had not been looking for - the deep level of distrust the largely minority victims felt toward public health authorities.
Study of coastal disasters yields surprising findings, arresting images
Two of the world's worst natural disasters in recent years stemmed from different causes on opposite sides of the globe, but actually had much in common, according to researchers who are part of a large National Science Foundation-funded research initiative that has been studying both the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004 and the Hurricane Katrina of 2005.
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