Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China has officially approved the construction of the first national leading scientific and technological facility in seismic engineering: a large-scale installation for simulation research in seismic engineering. This research facility will become the world’s largest and most powerful one in its kind for seismic simulation, which is of great relevance for maintaining major projects in civil engineering, irrigation works, marine filed, and transportation. This research tool will help to minimize the risks of earthquakes and not simply reduce losses from them. It will comprehensively enhance the all-out preventive capacity against natural disasters. According to some preliminary estimates, more than 1.5 billion RMB is expected to be invested in this facility, led by Tianjin University. At present, it is also the first major national scientific and technological infrastructure to be built in Tianjin.
The construction of this vast engineering research facility for seismic simulations is expected to make an important contribution to the development of scientific and technical engineering in China.
The shaking table is an effective tool for performing seismic simulations to study earthquakes. At present, due to the small scale or the capacity to conduct only one experiment, the existing shaking tables used for seismic simulations both in China and abroad cannot satisfy the need of ensuring engineering safety and normal service during possible earthquakes. Instead, the new large-scale simulation facility in seismic engineering led by Tianjin University will be a seismic shaking table with larger size and load capacity and will serve as a vibration-testing device capable of simultaneous simulation of seismic and underwater wave-current interaction. This facility will allow China to greatly elevate its innovation ability and to increase the level of development in the field of engineering.
By: School of Civil Engineering
Editors: Qin Mian and Keith Harrington
