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Tele-operation Tools for Bench-scale Shake Tables for Instruction in Earthquake Engineering

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Editor's Note: This is the second of a two-part Eduquakes series on educational shake tables. In Seismological Research Letters 78(3), Eduquakes provided a brief survey of low-end shake tables and activities; here Shirley Dyke and co-authors describe an ongoing effort to allow wide access (via the Internet) to more sophisticated shake tables. These bench-top tables are capable of matching realistic earthquake ground motion and would enhance any seismology class. For example, students could first calculate the expected waveforms from an earthquake and then test the effects on a model building, thereby providing a system-level "rupture-to-rafters" understanding of earthquakes and their effects. Although developed primarily for earthquake engineering, these tools are potentially useful to a much wider audience.

Bench-scale shake tables are an engaging tool for educating students at all levels about the importance of earthquake engineering. Shake tables allow for classroom demonstrations and hands-on experimentation regarding structural response to earthquake ground motions. Demonstrations for K-12 students allow students to gain an understanding of earthquake motions and how structures can be designed or retrofitted to better withstand seismic motions. At more advanced levels, undergraduate and graduate students can conduct experiments to test their knowledge of fundamental concepts. Students may also build or modify scaled structural models to experiment with their own innovations and may also gain experience with modern sensors. While theoretical and analytical discussions are necessary, hands-on experiments are quite effective for demonstrating basic concepts in structural dynamics and earthquake engineering and nicely supplement more traditional educational methods.

The University Consortium on Instructional Shake Tables (UCIST) was developed by Shirley Dyke in 1998 to enhance undergraduate and graduate education in earthquake engineering (see http://ucist.cive.wustl.edu/). This consortium, head-quartered at Washington University in St. Louis, was initially a cooperative educational effort among 23 universities associated with the three U.S. national . . . [Full Text of this Article]

School of Engineering and Applied Science
Washington University in St. Louis
Campus Box 1130
St. Louis, Missouri 63130USA
sdyke@seas.wustl.edu
(S.D.)