Fourth shake table debuts at University of Nevada, Reno earthquake lab
The office swayed and jolted from side-to-side, the floor heaved upwards as the “earthquake”
shook from below sending books off shelves, and pictures off the walls in the inaugural run of the new shake table this week at the University of Nevada, Reno’s earthquake simulation engineering lab.
It was part of a celebration of 25 successful years of constructing and destroying large-scale buildings and bridges in the name of science, as well as the unveiling of the new 14-foot by 14-foot, triaxial 50-ton capacity shake table that moves in six different directions (horizontally in two directions, vertically, and pitch, yaw, and roll rotations).
“This is a wonderful occasion,” Milt Glick, president of the University of Nevada said. “We’re recognizing the past and the good things that have happened and at the same time showing the future.”
“The new, fourth shake table will greatly enhance our ability to more accurately represent the motions of an earthquake,” Ian Buckle, director of the Large Scale Structures Laboratory at the University said. The new table will be used individually as well as with the other three shake tables in the earthquake simulation lab for large-structure experiments such as a four-span bridge test to be conducted in the near future, he said. Read more:
