A Landscape Assessment of North American Wave and Wind Facilities

Abstract

The National Full-Scale Testing Infrastructure for Community Hardening in Extreme Wind, Surge, and Wave Events (NICHE) is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure 1 project that aims to meet a critical need for full-scale testing for natural hazards resilience in the 21st century. The current project serves to establish an integrated design testbed (IDT) that will facilitate the design of the full-scale NICHE facility. This paper provides an overview of a landscape assessment of wave and wind facilities across North America that will inform the design of the physical experimentation portion of the IDT and eventual NICHE. The landscape assessment illustrates a comprehensive study of wave and wind facilities by expanding upon their research, capabilities, specifications, and equipment. In doing so, the paper intends to detail the critical need for a facility like NICHE in the nation’s research infrastructure while providing a database for wave and wind research that can promote future research and collaboration.