August 20, 2007

WHO:

Nasim Uddin, Ph.D., a University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) associate professor of civil engineering and the principal investigator on a National Science Foundation-sponsored project to develop a multifunctional composite for panelized construction.

WHAT:

As Hurricane Dean bears down upon Mexico, residents are taking precautions to preserve homes in the storm’s path. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) are designing, developing and manufacturing a housing material that will better withstand damage from higher winds, debris and storm waters than traditional building materials. Against a tornado, traditionally built dwellings tumble like “a house of cards,” Uddin says. “Maybe the time has come to move beyond traditional construction materials,” he says, “and begin looking at smarter materials.”

The new material, fiber reinforced polymer composites, would make houses safer amid hurricanes, flooding and tornadoes. Additional advantages of this material over traditional construction materials of insulation and gypsum wallboard are resistance to mold and termites and quicker construction. The less than 6-inch-thick composite structural insulated panels are made of insulating foam sandwiched between two composite sheets. Work continues on this project with a new three-year grant from the NSF. Co-principal investigators Uday Vaidya, Ph.D., a UAB Materials Science and Engineering professor; Fouad H. Fouad, Ph.D., professor and chair of the UAB Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering; and Amol Vaidya, a Ph.D. candidate in civil engineering at UAB, also are working on the project.