Ioana Patringenaru
Associate Director, Media Relations, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
Phone: 619-253-4474
Email: ipatring@ucsd.edu
Marti LaChance
Communications Manager, NHERI NSF
Phone: 765-918-6517
Email: lachance@purdue.edu
Researchers at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego will put a five-story building, fully equipped with an intensive care unit, a surgery suite, a working elevator, piping and air conditioning and fire barriers through a motion from the 7.9-magnitude Denali earthquake which occurred in Alaska. These tests are the second of two phases of seismic motion testing. The first phase involved isolating the building with large rubber dampers, while for tests tomorrow the building’s foundation will be anchored directly on the shake table. These tests will likely result in more severe damage to the structure and its contents. Full Story
At the UCSD-NEES site, earthquake and post-earthquake fire testing of a five-story building built at full-scale and completely furnished with nonstructural components and systems (NCSs) is underway. Unique to any building testing ever conducted, NCSs in the building include a functioning passenger elevator, partition walls, cladding systems, piping, HVAC, ceiling, sprinklers, building contents, as well as passive and active fire systems. Testing is planned for mid-April through May 2012. Full Story
UC San Diego researchers conducted a seismic test in an effort to find out if vital buildings such as hospitals can hold up during strong earthquakes. Full Story
Engineers in California have unleashed high-intensity artificial earthquakes on a five-storey building packed with medical equipment. Full Story
Scientists use the largest ?shake table? in the U.S. (at UC San Diego) to replicate big earthquakes, gathering valuable data that demonstrate how earthquakes affect buildings. NBC?s Miguel Almaguer reports. Full Story
What happens when a series of massive earthquakes hits a five-story medical facility with an intensive care unit, operating room and elevator?Structural engineers at the University of California, San Diego, began tests Tuesday to find out.Over the next two weeks, they will repeatedly rock an 80-foot-high building erected on a giant shake table as part of a $5 million experiment funded by government agencies, foundations and others. Full Story
Structural engineers and researchers at the University of California have begun tests to determine what would happen when a series of massive earthquakes strikes a large medical building. Over the next two weeks, they will be shaking an 80-foot-high building. It's hard to tell from the outside, but on Monday the five-story building experienced an 8.8 earthquake, moving just inches in each direction. Full Story