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A six-story condominium building being readied for a full-scale earthquake test.
On July 14th, this six-story, woodframe condominium building--shown here in transport onto the world's largest shake table--will be shaken with earthquake forces that occur, on average, only once every 2,500 years.
The final experiment of the multi-year NEESWood project, the effort will test new ways to construct buildings that can withstand the severe forces of nature.
Woodframe construction can be more affordable for mid-rise buildings than other methods, but little is known about how such buildings respond to earthquakes. NEESWood set out in 2005 to study how woodframe structures built to current specifications respond to the shaking of earthquakes and to use resulting data to develop models engineers could use to design safer buildings.
Credit: John van de Lindt, Colorado State University
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Related story: In Defiance of Earthquakes