In recent tests at the nees@berkeley lab, Stanford Associate Professor Eduardo Miranda and student Carlos Gordo Monson evaluated the performance of their new “Enhanced Gravity Connections” for use in steel buildings during a series of half scale beam column tests that utilized hybrid simulation to predict collapse. Watch project video
The Enhanced Gravity Connections use springs composed of polyurethane discs interleaved with steel plates, allowing the gravity beam-column connections to take on seismic load when the normal seismic elements begin to lose their capacity and the building drifts get large.
Collapse of buildings is one of the main causes of death and monetary loss in large earthquakes. These tests are furthering understanding of hybrid simulation methods and collapse prediction, as well as evaluating the performance of the proposed new gravity connections and their potential to reduce the probability of collapse in steel structures. The project is making use of the nees@berkeley lab’s actuators to apply large displacements to the specimens and its computers to simulate the mass of a real-world structure.
These experimental research tests at nees@berkeley are part a project titled “Hybrid Simulation of Multi Story Structural Systems Through Collapse” funded by a NEES-R award.
A filmed interview with the Stanford researchers has been overlaid with test footage from several of the moment connection tests, and is now available for viewing on PEER’s YouTube Channel.
More information about the project can be found at the nees@berkeley project web page.