Development and performance of single-axis shake table for earthquake simulation

摘要

The exact simulation of earthquake motion has been a serious challenge to researchers and engineers. Shake table testing is being increasingly used in earthquake engineering research centres worldwide, as it is the only available means of nearly trulyreproducing the dynamic effects that earthquakes impose on structures. To upgrade the dynamic testing facility at IIT Kanpur, a uniaxial shake table has been installed which is servo-hydraulic-operated and supported on low-friction ball bushing bearings. A relatively simple system has been assembled with care to ensure an adequate replication of input motion by the shaketable system. Subjective comparisons of input signal vs shake-table response, in both time and frequency domain have been utilized toprovide a measure of the capabilities of the simulator to reproduce earthquake motions scaled according to similitude laws. This communication discusses briefly various components of the shake table, its assembly and the investigations that were carriedout to provide specific insights into its response characteristics.