A High Capacity Dynamic Actuator for Large-Scale Experimental Testing Towards Seismic Resilience of Infrastructure Facilities

该建议涉及购买一个高容量最先进的动态执行器，以支持结构和非结构部件的大规模实验测试活动，以及在关键基础设施中实施的高性能设备。为了充分了解这些构件在地震荷载作用下的动力行为及其与基础设施的相互作用，大规模试验是必不可少的。这归因于与尺寸、加载速率以及随后对此类构件强度和刚度循环退化的影响有关的几个问题。所要求的设备将促进国家结构实验室之间的合作，并将有助于成功完成重要的实验方案，以便为北美的抗震和防爆设计制定连贯的规定。特别是，所要求的设备将用于(1)研究地震区里设计有宽翼缘柱的钢结构建筑的动力稳定性；(2)研究新型高强度钢合金在结构倒塌抗震设计中的应用；(3)促进高层建筑抗剪和轴向荷载联合作用下的伸缩附板连接的改进设计；(4)开发最先进的平台，通过利用现有的网络技术，能够同时测试位于远程实验室的同一结构的多个大型组件，从而实现地理上分散的实验；(5)提高关键基础设施功能部件和运行部件抗震性能的知识水平。

This proposal relates to the acquisition of a high capacity state-of-the-art dynamic actuator to support large-scale experimental testing activities of structural and non-structural components, as well as high performance devices implemented in critical infrastructure facilities. Large scale testing is essential in order to fully understand the dynamic behaviour of such members and their interaction with infrastructure facilities during earthquake loading. This is attributed to several issues related to scale effects in size, rate-of-loading and subsequent effects on cyclic deterioration in strength and stiffness of such members. The requested equipment will foster collaborations between national structures laboratories and will contribute to the successful completion of important experimental programs towards the development of coherent provisions for seismic and blast-resistant design in North America. In particular, the requested equipment will be utilized to (1) investigate the dynamic stability of steel buildings designed with wide flange columns in seismic regions; to (2) investigate the implementation of new high strength steel alloys in seismic design against structural collapse; to (3) facilitate the improved design of extended shear tab connections with combined shear and axial load actions for high rise buildings; (4) to develop state-of-the-art platforms that allow geographically distributed experiments by enabling simultaneous testing of multiple large-scale subassemblies of the same structure located in remote laboratories by using existing networking technology; (5) to improve the state-of-knowledge on the seismic performance of functional and operational components for critical infrastructure.