UC Home To Only Modular Quake Simulator In The World

The University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha (UC) Structural Engineering Laboratory now houses the only system that allows researchers to assemble and disassemble shaking platforms — much like a lego-set— to test structures required to withstand high-intensity earthquake shaking.

UC Civil Engineering Professor Santiago Pujol describes the facility as a groundbreaking tool for advancing seismic resilience.

“The challenge with civil engineering is that you can’t 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.

“This 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.

“For 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. That allows us to evaluate the integrity of ceilings, sprinklers, pipes, and fire-safety systems.”

Professor Pujol says there are many possibilities: “With 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.”

“This type of investment in research infrastructure is invaluable,” says Professor Pujol. “It will support a range of applications, from simulating high-intensity earthquakes to testing commercial products and student-led projects to understand dynamic structural responses.”

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 — both structural and non-structural — during large earthquakes.

“Following the Canterbury and the Kaikōura 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.”

While UC has used a small conventional “shake table” for decades, the new large-scale modular system significantly expands testing capabilities.

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