15 June 2015

A Université de Sherbrooke research group will be recognized as a leader in the seismic behaviour of structures thanks to $2.5 million in funding enabling the purchase of equipment that is unique in the world.

The professor Patrick Paultre in his structures laboratory

“One of the principal means of assessing the seismic performance of structures is to conduct laboratory tests on full-scale specimens. Unique in Canada, the two pieces of equipment that we have acquired will enable researchers, through hybrid tests, to test specimens distributed among different laboratories in several Canadian and American universities. Each laboratory will test a component of the same structure from large-scale samples,” explained Professor Patrick Paultre, Chairholder of the Canada Research Chair in Earthquake Engineering.

For example, four civil engineering laboratories in different parts of North America will be able to test four parts of the same bridge. “What’s new about this is that the behaviour of a structure’s critical components can now be studied by simultaneously applying displacements and strains from six directions at once,” noted the professor, “thus more realistically simulating an earthquake.”

This equipment, known as high-capacity loading frames, measures about 2 m x 3 m x 3 m. It will be installed in the Civil Engineering Department’s structure laboratory, which is one of the largest in Canada. The arrival of such equipment at the UdeS paves the way for a worldwide partnership.

Source and photo credit : Université de Sherbrooke