SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A shake table underneath a 10-story building simulated earthquakes at 6.7 and 7.7 magnitudes.
"That's the tallest specimen ever tested on a shake table so it's a historic test," said Joel Conte, a Structural Engineering Professor at UCSD.
This is at UCSD's Structural Engineering Center. More than 20 organizations worked for over 15 years to put it all together, so it was quite a relief that the test was a success. I got to see what the simulation looks like behind the scenes and inside the building itself.
"We have these slotted bolts here that allow the stairs to shift back and forth without breaking," said Dan Zehner with the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) Network.
Engineers made every piece of the building responsive to sudden movement.
"It absorbs the energy as the earthquake is coming," Zehner said.
This test improves resilience against major earthquakes. It also has long-term implications for construction materials. Most high rises are made out of concrete or steel, but this one is made out of wood.
"Wood is better because it's renewable, grows from a forest, and it helps sequester carbon," said Shiling Pei, the Lead Principal Investigator with NHERI. "We believe it's the direction that future cities should go."
