EERI Seismic Design Competition: the countdown is on!

Tuesday, March 24, 2015 | By Lindsay Cashin

EERI Seismic Design Team Leads, pictured front row L – R: Farinaz Moayedi, Brian HyunWoo Sung, Simon Pelta, Paul Yan; back row L – R: Fraser Peterson, Mike Lumb, Sim Toor, Evan Peatt

The UBC EERI Seismic Design Team is making final preparations to travel to the 2015 Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition, taking place in conjunction with the 2015 EERI Annual Meeting in Boston, March 31 – April 3. Over thirty students have been working together to design and construct a scale model of a high-rise building capable of safe and efficient earthquake resistance. The balsa wood scale model constructed for the competition will be placed under simulated gravity loads and earthquake loads, and the team’s presentation abilities will be tested along with their model’s performance.

The UBC EERI Seismic Design Team put over 750 hours of labour into the design and construction of this year’s model, and then subjected it to non-destructive shake table testing as well as ambient frequency testing at the EERF. The model was then packaged and shipped to Boston, and will be awaiting the team’s arrival on March 30th!

The UBC EERI Seismic Design Team is excited to represent UBC as one of only two Canadian teams at this prestigious competition. As this year’s competition is running congruently with the 2015 EERI Annual Meeting, teams will have the opportunity to participate in an Post-Earthquake Reconnaissance Workshop where they will gain the fundementals to perform rapid post-earthquake reconnaissance survey. The Department of Civil Engineering wishes the team all the best for the competition!