UK Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (UK-NEES)

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Recent advances in computing and web-based communications have created the possibility of allowing remote, real-time access to experimental facilities and data. This project will create a Grid-based network between the UK's three leading earthquake engineering laboratories at Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol. The network will enable participation by remote researchers in experiments through two-way video links and on-line data streaming (teleparticipation), remote operation of certain facilities (teleoperation), synchronous operation of geographically distributed experimental facilities in a common experiment (distributed hybrid testing), and the archiving and sharing of data via a curated data repository. The network will (i) optimise the utility of these key laboratories by opening them up to users around the UK and the wider world, (ii) enhance collaboration and integration of research effort, (iii) enable testing of larger and more complex structures than can be tested in a single lab, and (iv) reduce the need to replicate expensive facilities in numerous locations. The system will be connected to, and closely modelled on, the recently established George E. Brown Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) in the USA. The work performed in this project will comprise the installation of the necessary equipment and software, integration with existing systems in the three laboratories and the performance of a series of tests, which will demonstrate and evaluate the capabilities for tele-participation and distributed testing. Tele-participation tests will take place both within the UK and with trans-Atlantic partners. The distributed test will be carried out between the three laboratories, each of which will test at large scale a component of an idealised bridge. The three tests will be performed synchronously, with data passed between them at each timestep.