Projects

NEES Adapt-Struct - Phase II

Thursday, November 18, 2011: In the second phase of this study, the concept of "weakening and damping" is verified in a prototype 1:3 scale moment-frame designed at University at Buffalo (UB) and tested by the researchers at UB, Rice Univeristy and Taylor Devices, Inc.
The current testing series is underway and is planned to end on or before December 23, 2011

For more information, please, click here.

Seismic performance of suspended ceiling systems

Monday August 29, 2011 Part of the overall research project on Simulation of the Seismic Performance of Nonstructural Systems lead by the University of Nevada Reno, the University at Buffalo team of this NSF Sponsored Grand Challenge project (NEESR-GC) on studies of non-structural components is conducting a testing series of suspended ceilings and associated components (lighting, etc) using full size 20x50 ft (6x16 m) and 20x20 ft (6x6 m) frames, to be completed in Fall 2011 using the tandem shake tables at SEESL (University at Buffalo).
For more information please go here.

Quake Summit 2011 UB-NEES Site Tour and Test Demonstrations

Saturday June 11, 2011following the Quake Summit closing sessions, UB-NEES hosted over 100 Quake Summit participants for a multi-hour tour of the UB-NEES site. CSEE Professor Andre Filiatrault provided detailed descriptions and research applications of the major UB-NEES equipment systems including the Twin Re-configurable Shake Tables, The Nonstructural Component Simulator (NCS), the 1-G Geotechnical Laminar Box and the Reaction Wall/Strong Floor/Actuator testing systems. This was followed by Shake Table and NCS equipment system test demonstrations.
For more information please go here.

Quake Summit 2011-Student Mentoring Workshop

Thursday, June 9, 2011 A major EOT activity held during Quake Summit 2011, was the Student Mentoring Session and Workshop on instrumentation, calibration and testing organized and hosted by the UB-NEES site. The workshop, attracted approximately 56 domestic and international students that were accompanied by many of the NEES site PI’s and NSF’s Dr. Joy Pauschke.
For more information please go here.

BEAM Grand Challenge 2011

May, 2011in conjunction with the UB-School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), UB-NEES led and participated in a major event at the annual BEAM competition targeting Western New York High School minority students. This year, approximately 90 local high school minority students participated, representing ~14 local high schools. This UB-BEAM event involves all of the engineering departments in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (Civil, Aero-Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial, Bio, Computer Engineering, etc…) each establishing a discipline specific venue challenging students to complete an engineering task and answer engineering technical and trivia questions related to the specific engineering venue.
For more information please go here.

Congresswoman Kathy Hochul Visits the UB-NEES Laboratory

Tuesday, June 28, 2011: newly elected Congresswoman Kathy Hochul visited and toured the UB-NEES laboratory, escorted by UB President Satish Tripathy. Her visit with President Tripathy was hosted in relation to UB’s 2020 program. This visit has afforded UB-NEES with some initial visibility, at the federal congressional level with more anticipated during future visits, as Congresswoman Hochul indicated.

For more information, please, click here.

NEESSquatWalls

Wednesday, May 04, 2011: NSF and NEES funded large scale low aspect ratio (height/length) reinforced concrete shear wall testing is underway in the SEESL Laboratory at the University at Buffalo.

For more information, please, click here.

NEEStips

Wednesday, November 17, 2010: As part of the NEES TIPS project, earthquake simulator testing is underway at UB-NEES, to assess the performance limit states of seismically isolated buildings under strong ground motions. The experimental program includes component testing of elastomeric bearings to characterize their stability and system level shakes table experiments to examine limits states of isolated building systems under extreme ground shaking.

For more information, please, click here.

NEES Adapt-Struct - Phase I

Monday, August 30, 2010: at 9:00 am EST a Demonstaration test will be performed and webcast for our internet audience. Please, join us.

For more information, please, click here.

SEESL/NEES@Buffalo YouTube Channel

Thursday, May 20, 2010: A SEESL/NEES@Buffalo YouTube Channel has been created where you will be able to see videos and news coeverage of some the tests done here.

For more information, please, click here.

Large-Scale, Dual Shake Table Test of Precast Segmental Bridge

Monday, May 03, 2010: A 1/2.4 scale single-span precast segmental bridge will be tested on the adjacent re-locatable shake tables at the University at Buffalo. The objective of the test is to identify the response and evaluate the performance of precast segmental bridges when subjected to seismic loading. The large scale bridge model, designed according to the Accelerated Bridge Construction techniques, will be the first of its type ever performed in the United States.

For more information, please, go here.

NEESports: Large-Scale, Shake Table Test of a Container Crane

Monday, November 23, 2009:at 2:00 PM EST To get a better understanding of how container cranes respond during an earthquake, a 1/10th scale model of a container crane has been designed and will be tested on the shake table at the University at Buffalo. The objective of the test is to measure the response of the crane from small levels of shaking to those large enough to cause the test crane to collapse. The upcoming test will be the largest ever performed in the United States and the first shake table test in the world to test to collapse.

For more information, please, go here.

Hybrid Simulation of Steel Moment Frame to Collapse

Wednesday, July 29, 2009:at 8:00 AM EST, 21:00 JST, we will be conducting a geographically distributed hybrid simulation of a four story steel moment frame building subjected to the 1995 JR Takatori record at 100% scale. The building model is based on the four story steel moment frame building tested to collapse at E-Defense, Japan in September 2007.

For more information, please, go here.

Structural Fuse Concept for Bridges

Tuesday, May 5, 2009: The concept of designing sacrificial elements to dissipate seismic energy while preserving the integrity of the structure’s other main components is known as the structural fuse concept.
The first specimen will be tested on Monday, May 11, 2009 starting at 9:00 AM. Plase join us for LIVE webcast.

For more information please go here.

UB “Science Exploration Day” 2009 at SEESL

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Approximately 40 Western New York high school students, participating in UB’s-23rd “Science Exploration Day” toured UB’s Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL), in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering (CSEE). They also observed a simulated earthquake, employing a “Mini-Shake Table”, subjecting a sub-scale 27-story building to a seismographic record from the 1995 Kobe Earthquake. For more information please go here.

UB-NEES Hosts NEES Board of Directors

August 14, 2008the UB-NEES site hosted a visit for the NEES Board of Directors who are holding their quarterly board meeting in Buffalo, N.Y. on August 15, 2008. The following eight Board Members attended the visit: Roberto Leon, John Bobbitt, Shirley Dyke, JoAnn Browning, Jim Myers, Julio Ramirez, Jim Ricles and Ken Stoke. Also in attendance were Dr. Joy Pauschke, NSF’s-NEES Program Director and Dr. Steve McCabe, CEO of NEESInc.
For more information click here

NEESports

August 4, 2008 NEES@Buffalo will begin testing the 1:20 port crane scale model as a part of Seismic Preformance of Cranes project which forms part of NEESGC - Seismic Risk Management for Port Systems project.
The model will be subjected to a suite of ground motions that are representative of the criteria used for the design of port structures. The suite of ground motions consist of two operating level earthquakes, two contingency level earthquakes, and ground motions recorded on a wharf at the Port of Oakland during the Loma Prieta earthquake.
For more information and to view Live video of the testing, click here

Dedication of the University at Buffalo Nonstructural Components Simulator (UB-NCS)

October 12, 2007 MCEER, NEES and SEESL hosted a Symposium on Seismic Regulations and Challenges for Protecting Building Equipment, Components & Operations. The program marked the dedication of the University at Buffalo's new Nonstructural Components Simulator (UB-NCS).

• Arhived webcasts of symposium and demonstration
• For more information on NCS, please click here

NEESCollapse

NEESCollapse project objectives are: to document a comprehensive collapse experiment with data that covers the range of response of a 4 – story steel frame structure from elastic behavior to incipient collapse, to evaluate effectiveness of analytical models that model explicitly deterioration and to generate landmark experimental data to be used by all project participants
For more information on NEESCollapse project, please, click here.

NEESPiles

The NEESPiles project will involve the laminar box filled with saturated sand at a relative density of 40-50%. The first test denoted by LG-1 involves a level ground deposit subjected to shaking, and the second experiment denoted by SG-1 involves a gently sloping ground at a slope of about 2 to 3 degrees.

For More Information on NEESPiles project, please, go to NEESPiles project section of this website

NEESWood

Since the start of the NEESWood Project on September 15, 2005, preparations are underway for the NEESWood Benchmark shake table testing of a two-story woodframe townhouse that will require the simultaneous use of the two three-dimensional shake tables acting in unison at the SUNY-Buffalo NEES node. As the largest full-scale three-dimensional shake table test ever performed in the U.S., the results of this series of shake table tests will serve as a benchmark for woodframe performance as well as for the validation of numerical models. The first testing phase is planned for the first week of June 2006.

For More Information on NEESWood project, please, go to NEESWood project section of this website

Seismic Qualification of Potential Transformers

On the week of March 27-31, 2006 Seismic Qualification of Potential Transformers was conducted on one of the two new seismic simulators of the Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL) of the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering (CSEE) at the University at Buffalo (State University of New York).
The study is sponsored by MCEER (Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research), by EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) and by EUC (Electrical Utility Consortium).
For More information, please click here. NOTE: This section is password protected!

Seismic Qualification of Disconnect Switches

On the week of March 13-17, 2006 and week of March 27-31, 2006 Seismic Qualification of Disconnect Switches was conducted on one of the two new seismic simulators of the Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL) of the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering (CSEE) at the University at Buffalo (State University of New York).
The study is sponsored by MCEER (Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research), by EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) and by EUC (Electrical Utility Consortium).
For More information, please click here. NOTE: This section is password protected!

Zipper Frames Test 2005 Dynamic Seismic Response of Steel Braced Frames with Innovative Bracing Configurations

On Tuesday August 2, 2005 we conducted, 2^nd phase shake table testing of a 3-story, 42 kips, steel frame model equipped with advanced braces ("Zipper Frames") on one of the two new seismic simulators of the new NEES expansion of the Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL) of the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering (CSEE) at the University at Buffalo (State University of New York). The testing was similar to the test in phase 1 (see bellow) with the beams of the frame restrained laterally in their mid-span to prevent torsion. This Experiment was webcasted Live. The test lasted whole day and the specific starting times of different test components were posted as the test progresses. To see the experiment click here.

Suspended Ceilings
Vulnerability of Suspended Ceilings

PDF Presentation
Powerpoint Presentation (Password Access)

High Voltage Disconnect Switches
Seismic Qualification of Disconnect Switches

PDF Presentation
Powerpoint Presentation (Password Access)

Zipper Frames Test Dynamic Seismic Response of Steel Braced Frames with Innovative Bracing Configurations

On Wednesday December 8, 2004 we will conduct shake table testing of a 3-story, 42 kips, steel frame model equipped with advanced braces ("Zipper Frames") on one of the two new seismic simulators of the new NEES expansion of the Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL) of the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering (CSEE) at the University at Buffalo (State University of New York).This Experiment will be webcast Live. The test will last whole day and the specific starting times of different test components will be posted as the test progresses. To see the experiment click here.
PDF Presentation
Powerpoint Presentation (Password Access)

SEESL Demonstration Test
Double Concave Friction Pendulum System

On Friday December 3, 2004 we conducted a demonstration test of a 6-story, 240 kN seismically isolated model on one of the two new seismic simulators of the Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL) of the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering (CSEE) at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York.

PDF Presentation
Powerpoint Presentation (Password Access)

SEESL Opening Ceremonies Test
Added damping in structural systems

On Friday, September 24, 2004 we conducted an opening ceremonies test. The demonstration featured a scale model of a five-story building, located on one shake table. The model was equipped with seismic dampers in the east-west direction.

PDF Presentation
Powerpoint Presentation (Password Access)