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Shaking a 275-ton Building

Posted by Zonk on from the without-using-your-superpowers dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "If you want to predict how a tall building can resist to an earthquake, some researchers have better tools than others. Engineers from the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) have built a full-size 275-ton building and really shaken it to obtain earthshaking images. The building was equipped with some 600 sensors and filmed as the shake table simulated the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles, California. It gave so much data to the engineers to analyze that they needed a supercomputer to help them. Now they hope their study will yield to better structure performance for future buildings in case of earthquakes."

3 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Wow by hack++slash · · Score: 5, Funny

    The simulated quake must've been so big it shook the images off the linked page!

    --
    To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
  2. Re:Somebody saw this coming by zentagonist · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/uoc --ei041107.php should be the article ... no images though.

  3. Think harder by GFree · · Score: 5, Funny

    It gave so much data to the engineers to analyze that they needed a supercomputer to help them


    Why are they using a supercomputer?

    Screw that, let's wait for Earthquakes@home - and hope the name doesn't scare off some people.