Florida Tech Earns Florida Sea Grant Funding for Wind Research

– Two Florida Tech faculty members have been awarded a two-year research grant of $47,522 annually, from the Florida Sea Grant Program. The grant funds the
university’s work on a joint project with the University of Florida.

Dr. Jean-Paul Pinelli, Florida Tech associate professor of civil engineering, and Dr. Chelakara Subramanian, associate professor of mechanical and
aerospace engineering, will evaluate the vulnerability of man-made coastal structures to hurricane wind damage. The team also will determine reductions in
risk through the use of retrofits and new construction methods, and conduct a cost-benefit analysis of these mitigation measures.

They will use a structural vulnerability model as the starting point for a new computational tool that will quantify relative reductions in risk damage
from retrofits and alternative construction methods.

Pinelli is also director of Florida Tech’s Wind and Hurricane Impacts Research Laboratory (WHIRL). The center is dedicated to the study of the effects and
impacts of wind storms, including hurricanes, tornadoes and thunderstorms, and other related meteorological hazards, such as flooding and tidal surges, on
the natural environment and man-made structures.