Large scale structural testing for civil engineering, energy industry and others, including static and dynamic testings

New and innovative aspects

The integration of numerical simulation technologies and testing capacities, improved designs can be obtained, making them optimal for their intended use.
Using a own protocol, it is possible to test 1:1 scale parts of a structure. Through the development of finite element models of the testings, it is possible to compare the failure modes of the testing specimens with the ones of the complete structure. Using the safety factors obtained in the test, it is possible to accurately determine the real safety factor of the
whole structure.

Main advantages of its use

Large-scale testings help to optimize the design, minimizing cost. This is especially useful in the industrial sector, because many equal pieces are casted. In this case, the optimization of the design allows significant cost reduction. Usually, international standards are over-conservative, and this is not always usefull to the industry. Testings can allow to use "out of standards" solutions, more effective in terms of cost.

Specifications

The new Laboratory of Large Civil Engineering Structures is in the west of the new civil engineering building of the University of Burgos (Burgos – Spain).
The lab consists of a 66 ft x 98 ft building. It includes a 39 ft x 78 ft strong floor with 13 ft thickness, and 225-kip capacity tie-downs on a 2.6 ft x 2.6 ft pattern. It is provided of two 10 ft x 10 ft and 10 ft x 13 ft strong walls with 3.2 ft thickens, and 225-kip capacity tie-downs on a 2.6 ft x 2.6 ft pattern.
To move specimens and equipment around the lab, two 16-ton 52-ft span simple girder overhead cranes will be furnished with two 80 ft long runways. A forklift provides additional mobility for lab activities.
One two-legged 23-ft high steel test frame with 1800-kip capacity and one two-legged 13-ft high steel test frame with 225-kip capacity will allow simultaneous loading of various structural components.
The lab will be served with a central 53-gpm hydraulic punt; one 1125-kip and four 450-kip compression servo controlled hydraulic actuators (ENERPAC models), one 225-kip, one 112-kip and one 11-kip tension/compression servo controlled fatigue-rated hydraulic actuators with 10-in stroke (MTS models); computerized controller for simultaneous use of four actuators; one 96-channel and three 36-channel high-speed data acquisition systems (HBM models); and comprehensive array of sensors to allow static and dynamic loading of large to full-scale structural components and systems.

Applications

The target companies of this technology are, mainly, civil engineering companies, and industrial companies, i.e, energy, aeronautics, aerospace, automotive, etc.. The main applications are the development of a new product, the optimization of an existing product, the analysis of the properties of a product beyond its service life, etc…

Intellectual property status

Protected by patent P200801660

Current development status

Commercially Available

Desired business relationship

Commercial Agreement, License Agreement, Technical Cooperation: further development; Technical Cooperation: testing new applications; Technical Cooperation: adaptation to specific needs.