Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER)

Simulator Tests Earthquake Impacts on Nonstructural Components

Staff of MCEER, an Earthquake Engineering Research Center (ERC), have designed a National Testing Facility for Nonstructural Components that allows integrated experimental and analytical research of how nonstructural components perform under stress.

The design involved enhancing and upgrading equipment at the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) Facility at University at Buffalo, where MCEER is headquartered.

The Nonstructural Components Simulator (NCS) consists of actuators and special modular testing platforms that dynamically replicate large displacements, velocities, and accelerations to which equipment and nonstructural components are subjected during earthquakes. The equipment also simulates how those components interact with structural systems.

This new facility is empowering MCEER investigators and practitioners, particularly those involved in MCEER's hospital research thrust, to do analysis at the systems level. It also helps the staff understand, quantify, and control the seismic response of nonstructural components as part of the total building system.

To learn more about this topic:
Visit the MCEER Research page at http://mceer.buffalo.edu/research/hospitals/default.asp.

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The Nonstructural Components Simulator uses
actuators and special platforms to mimic the effects
of an earthquake on nonstructural components.

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Last modified: April 11, 2007