Photo caption:听From left to right 蘑菇视频在线观看听 Civil Engineering PhD candidate Liam Pledger and听 .听
The 蘑菇视频在线观看 | Te Whare W膩nanga o Waitaha (UC) Structural Engineering Laboratory now houses the only system that allows researchers to assemble and disassemble shaking platforms 鈥 much like a lego-set鈥 to test structures required to withstand high-intensity earthquake shaking.
UC Civil Engineering describes the facility as a groundbreaking tool for advancing seismic resilience.
鈥淭he challenge with civil engineering is that you can鈥檛 test-drive a building before an earthquake. Computer simulations have limitations, and there is always uncertainty about how structures will behave under real seismic demands.
鈥淭his system changes that. We can assemble test structures piece by piece, attach structural components to independent shaking platforms, and simulate realistic earthquake demands. Using a network of powerful hydraulic actuators (jacks) that move at high speeds, the system lets us shake entire structures or parts of structures.听
鈥淔or example, we can move floors independently of each other to simulate what occurs in a multi-story building without having to test the entire building.听 That allows us to evaluate the integrity of ceilings, sprinklers, pipes, and fire-safety systems.鈥澨
Professor Pujol says there are many possibilities: 鈥淲ith our lego-like testing system, we can shake the foundations of model bridges independently or simulate the full foundation system of entire buildings or houses.鈥
鈥淭his type of investment in research infrastructure is invaluable,鈥 says Professor Pujol. 鈥淚t will support a range of applications, from simulating high-intensity earthquakes to testing commercial products and student-led projects to understand dynamic structural responses.鈥
UC Civil Engineering PhD candidate Liam Pledger is using the facility to investigate the benefits of stronger, more robust building structures and their impact on non-structural components compared to less robust structures. His goal is to better understand which types of buildings are most vulnerable to damage 鈥 both structural and non-structural 鈥 during large earthquakes.听
鈥淔ollowing the Canterbury and the Kaik艒ura earthquakes, many buildings sustained widespread damage to non-structural components like sprinklers, ceilings, plasterboard walls, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. The new modular earthquake simulator allows us to test these non-structural components using realistic floor demands, in a way that has never been done before.鈥
While UC has used a small conventional 鈥渟hake table鈥 for decades, the new large-scale modular system significantly expands testing capabilities.
