Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), NHERI 2023: Spatio-temporal Testing of Air-Permeable Building Cladding Systems

This DMR case study focused on spatio-temporal testing of air-permeable building cladding systems to assess their performance under dynamic wind pressures. The increasing damage caused by hurricanes has emphasized the need for robust building materials and designs. Recent failures, such as soffit and siding failures, have highlighted vulnerabilities in existing construction practices. Using a controlled laboratory testing device called a spatiotemporal pressure-loading actuator (SPLA) simulated wind pressure dynamics on roofing components during high wind events were tested. The data collected from this research can be reused for future development of new buildings, design of new discontinuous metal roofing (DMR), continuing the research left to be worked on, and also as a reference for similar research of projects in the near future. This project can be unique for the scope we were aiming for, which was how efficiently we could test DMR panels and get precise results with fewer error margins while maintaining efficiency and productivity. The audience can be a college student looking to start an internship and using this as inspiration while also helping the student understand what they can expect to learn; another type of audience can be a researcher looking for references on similar topics or testing which there is lots of information to gather from this research and the reference used on this research as well. A final audience this could be directed to would be a professor doing a research project with his graduate student as a reference to guide his student.