Risk Evaluation of Transportation Systems to Tornadoes to Facilitate SAFE Digital Twin Development

This project will develop tornado hazard curves for tornado-prone regions. To achieve this, the tornado genesis model will be applied to generate a large number of tornado starting points. Then, the tornado track model will be applied to simulate track parameters (e.g., path width, length, heading direction and intensity). Next, for each tornado track, a wind field model will be established to obtain the information on the entire wind field, including wind velocity and pressure. For this, CFD simulations will be first applied to model a small number of tornadoes with representative flow structure and intensities; a surrogate model will then be developed using the multi-fidelity machine learning modeling technique, to replace the time-consuming CFD simulations. Finally, the generated data from the synthetic tornado tracks for a great number of years will be processed statistically to develop tornado hazard curves and tornado hazard maps for the states in Mainland America. The developed tornado hazard curves will help Department of Transportation properly assess the damage to vehicles on the road or in parking lots, informing stakeholders of preparation for future tornadoes. The developed curves can be integrated into catastrophe modeling to better estimate the risk of vehicles under tornadoes and thus better price the automobile insurance premium. In addition, these curves can improve the building codes related to a tornado-resistant design.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $160,000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348307

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Mid-America Transportation Center

  University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  2200 Vine Street, PO Box 830851
  Lincoln, NE  United States  68583-0851
• Project Managers:

  Bruner, Britain

• Performing Organizations:

  Missouri University of Science & Technology, Rolla

  Department of Engineering
  202 University Center
  Rolla, MO    65409
• Principal Investigators:

  Yan, Grace

• Start Date: 20260601
• Expected Completion Date: 20270531
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Fluid dynamics; Machine learning; Mapping; Predictive models; Simulation; Tornadoes; Wind
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Environment; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01989521
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Mid-America Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348307
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: May 18 2026 5:13PM