Expanding the Field Capabilities of the NEES@UTexas Equipment Site

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This award provides funding to the University of Texas - Austin (UTA), to upgrade the experimental capabilities of the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) Large-Scale Mobile Shakers and associated instrumentation for the Dynamic Field Studies of Geotechnical and Structural Systems site that will be operated by NEES Consortium, Inc., as a national shared use facility during FY 2005 - FY 2014. The major equipment at the UTA NEES site includes: (1) three mobile shakers that have diverse force and frequency capabilities and a tractor-trailer rig to move the two largest shakers to and from field sites, (2) an instrumentation van that houses state-of-the-art data acquisition systems and a satellite link-up, and (3) a large collection of field instrumentation that includes wired and wireless sensors that measure vibrational motion and pore water pressure. Under this award, the following equipment will be purchased for this site: two moveable Cone Penetration Test (CPT) cylinders; CPT computer control unit; and three CPT cone tips, GPS, 30 Tri-axial MEMS accelerometers, 10 pore pressure transducers and related cables and connectors. The moveable cylinders will allow positioning the truck closest to the site and allow the freedom of movement of the truck in both horizontal directions to facilitate the insertion and extraction of liquefaction sensors. Instrumented cone penetration test equipment allows cost -effective site exploration in studying soil liquefaction. Liquefaction sensors including a three cone tips, and a computer control unit will enable this function. The field GPS will allow field personnel to pinpoint the location of equipment and sensors. This functionality enables the user to tag the recorded points with additional information through GPS. MEMS accelerometers along with the transducers enable in-situ liquefaction tests at frequencies less than 10Hz. This upgraded equipment will significantly expand and improve the field- testing capabilities at this NEES site. This equipment will be available to the earthquake engineering research community through the NEES Consortium, Inc., UTA NEES facility. This award is funded by the NSF NEES Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) project and is a component of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP).