Experimental Facilities

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University at Buffalo

Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL)
Structural laboratory include a state-of-the-art 12 X12 foot seismic shaking table simulator, and an 18" thick concrete "strong floor" which covers an overall area of 3400 square feet. The structural laboratories offer material testing equipment for both static and dynamic loading systems; a structural models laboratory;  aconcrete laboratory; and a multi-story testing bay for testing full-scale components.

The University at Buffalo shaking table is a 12 X 12 foot table with five degrees of freedom (DOF), all of which can be individually programmed. The sixth DOF is constrained by two hydrostatic slide bearings. Reinforcing rods, located biaxially in the table, are capable of tension adjustment to "tune" the table structure with test loads mounted on it. Motion is produced by servocontrolled electrohydraulic actuators.

Structural models of up to 50 metric tons (110,000 lbs.) can be shaken with a maximum acceleration of .5 g in the horizontal direction and 1 g in the vertical direction. At less than full load, the maximum accelerations are considerably  greater. The system is capable of developing velocities of 30 in./sec. in the horizontal and vertical directions. At low frequencies, the system is limited by displacements of 6 in. laterally and 3 in. vertically.

• Description of Laboratory Facilities

• Description of Laboratory Equipment

• Calibration and Signal Conditioning Setup

Strong Floor Testing:Quasistatic
Pseudo-Dynamic Testing
Effective Floor Testing
Centrifuge Testing

Cornell University

The George Winter and Concrete Laboratories
The George Winter Laboratory includes a crane bay 55’ x 60’ by 40’ high and a 6000 square foot low bay. The crane bay has 18’ high, 12" thick concrete walls spanning the 15’ horizontal distances between heavy, laced, concrete jacketed columns that support the roof. The columns are designed as reaction points for vertical downward loads up to 750 kips at any point, vertical upward loads up to 50 kips at any point, and horizontal loads up to 50 kips in any direction within the lower 18’ of the columns. The high bay is floored with 18" of reinforced concrete that can withstand a load of 100,000 psf. There is a grid of twenty-seven floor anchors; each with a vertical uplift capacity of 200 kips. A 10 ton capacity crane services the bay. A 2 ton capacity forklift (with a 14’ lifting height) services the Winter and Concrete Labs. The crane bay has a closed loop hydraulic loading system, which includes:

• a 40 gpm pump with a high pressure oil distribution system,

• three independent MTS multi-channel servo-controllers,

• nine fatigue rated servo-controlled actuators ranging in capacity from 2 kips to 400 kips,

• a 200 kip MTS load frame,

• a 50 kip MTS load frame,

• a 5’ x 7’ single axis, seismic shake table.

• Other testing equipment in the crane bay includes:

• a 300 kip Baldwin open loop column tester capable of testing 16’ columns,

• a 10 meter long flexible, space frame truss (used in dynamic structural damping research),

• three large steel frames designed for testing wall systems and wall/floor connection systems.

The connected low bay is 17’ high and houses equipment for a wide variety of structural engineering and materials research, including:

• a 600 kip MTS servo-controlled test frame with control system and independent hydraulic supply, a 400 kip Baldwin testing machine,  

• a 100 kip Baldwin testing machine,

• an 18’ x 8’ vacuum box for uniform loading (of large wall, roof or floor systems),

• a wide variety of open loop hydraulic testing equipment ranging from 10 to 200 tons in capacity,

• a wide variety of loading hardware

• an ASTM C666 freeze/thaw chamber

• an AASHTO T-277 rapid chloride permeability test system,

• concrete and mortar specimen curing tanks and incubating chambers.

The Concrete Materials Lab is a 2044 square foot space with a 17’ ceiling attached to the low bay of the George Winter Lab. It provides space and houses equipment for concrete materials research. The lab equipment includes: a variety of mixers ranging from Hobart bench-top models to a 2.5 cubic foot mixer; bulk aggregate storage facilities; ASTM standard equipment for characterizing aggregate, cement, mortar and concrete parameters; curing chambers; drying ovens; and freezers (two are fitted with low temperature control systems). Equipment for characterizing dynamic modulus of elasticity, ultrasonic pulse velocity, pH, temperature, and wind speed are available in the Concrete Lab. A high torque coring drill, a Highland Park geological slab saw and a grinding and polishing table are available for specimen preparation. Two testing frames (a 600 kip Forney and a 60 kip Baldwin) allow testing of cube, cylinder and prism specimens.

A variety of high resolution, multi-channel, IEEE488 measuring systems are available for use throughout the testing labs (for measuring up to 220 channels during experiments). Another group of data acquisition systems based on personal computers with high speed data acquisition cards allows measurements of up to 192 channels during dynamic tests. These systems can be used separately for smaller research projects or together for larger projects. Appropriate signal conditioning is available for all measurements, including strain gage bridge completion, excitation and amplification. A wide variety of load cells, pressure sensors, dc-dc linear variable differential transformers (lvdts), Temposonic (magneto-strictive) displacement measuring devices, accelerometers, extensometers, humidity and temperature sensors are available.

University of Nevada, Reno

Shaking Table
The lab has two 110250-lb (50-ton) 14x14.6 ft (4.3 m x 4.5 m) MTS uniaxial shaking tables in operation. These tables are relocatable within the laboratory and have a maximum stroke = 12 in.(30.5 cm), velocity = 40 in./sec (101.6 cm/sec), and acceleration = ±1 g. To achieve these maxima, two banks of blowdown accumulation are used. The maximum cumulative stroke = 330 in. (8.4 m). With the actuator under the table, the tables are designed to handle simultaneously a maximum pitch moment of 1000 kip-ft (1356 kN-m) along with a maximum roll and yaw moment of 400 kip-ft (542.4 kN-m). If a single table were to be operated by the continuous oil supply, the maximum velocity reduces to 25 in./sec (63.5 cm/sec). Furthermore, these two tables can be reconfigured to produce a single biaxial table shaking in the two horizontal directions or a single uniaxial table having an increased maximum acceleration of ± 2g. Also, by running the uniaxial tables with the available external actuator option, the maximum pitch moment ran be increased to 1200 kip-ft (1627 kN-m). The two tables can be constrained to act together as a single large table, or they can be operated individually with independent motions.

Rensselear Polytechnic Institute

Centrifuge Research Center
The centrifuge machine installed at Rensselaer is an Acutronic Model 665-1 constructed to RPI's specifications. It has an in-flight platform radius of 3.0m and can test a payload of 1 ton at 100g or 0.5 ton at 200g, corresponding to linear dimension scaling factors of 100 or 200, respectively. A small in-flight computer controlled earthquake simulator (shaker), capable of shaking a payload of 90kg, was designed and constructed at RPI in December 1990; a laminar rectangular box simulating the shear beam boundary conditions for the soil in the free field during shaking was finalized in March 1991. A larger in-flight shaker capable of shaking a payload of 450kg has started operation in 1995.

In addition to the shakers and the laminar box, development for equipment and instrumentation for both static and earthquake loading has included the design and construction of rigid wall containers of various sizes, a high-speed data acquisition system, a videosystem for in-flight real time monitoring, and the acquisition of suitable miniature VDT's, accelerometers and pore pressure transducers.