Research Equipment for Soil Dynamics Testing

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Research equipment will be put in place for new experimental soil dynamics and earthquake engineering research. The resonant column apparatus and the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) signal analysis workstation will be used to evaluate damping of soils using a new nonlinear technique, and to study the time-dependent nature of dynamic soil behavior under earthquake excitation conditions. The resonant column device is capable of applying both sinusoidal and random excitation for the purpose of determining dynamic soil properties. The FFT workstation includes a powerful dual-channel FFT spectrum analyzer, a waveform recorder, a digital oscilloscope, and an IBM- compatible DOS computer, all integrated in one system. The proposed equipment will provide the Civil Engineering Department with a necessary facility to improve its research capability. With the initial involvement of eight minority students and future involvement of additional minority students the proposed project will enhance the representation of minorities in engineering at the University of the District of Columbia.