Students Test Building Models at UT’s Structural Engineering Lab

On April 30, students in Principles of Engineering, led by physics and engineering instructor Danielle Horton, visited the Ferguson Structural Engineering Lab at the UT Pickle Research Campus. The classes were hosted by Tricia Clayton, a professor specializing in structural engineering, specifically performance- and resilience-based earthquake engineering. Horton’s students learned about current research in earthquake engineering; toured the structural engineering lab where active experiments on projects such as TxDOT light poles, large-scale bridge joints and heat stress tests were being performed; experienced the Thumper and Raptor mobile shakers, which shake the ground at designated frequencies to determine small scale ground motion; and tested their own structures on the UT earthquake shake table.  

 

Shake tables are tools that can replicate seismic ground motions collected from historic earthquakes. After adding weights to the models to mirror the mass of actual buildings, the students’ models were subjected to four earthquakes, each increasing in intensity — the 2005 Great Hanshin, Japan, earthquake; the 1989 Loma Prieta, Calif., earthquake; the 2011 Christchurch, New Zealand, earthquake; and the 2009 L'Aquila, Italy, earthquake.

 

Several models survived the four earthquake simulations and were then subjected to an adjustable sine wave, which shook the models with increasing intensity until they reached their final breaking point. One structure was deemed "indestructible" and remained intact at the highest intensity wave. Congratulations to senior Will Zagrodsky, junior Margaret Butler, junior Mia Metni and senior Andres Adkins for designing the indestructible structure.