Posted for Emma Marris

Researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno working on earthquake-resistant building materials (nickel-titanium bars, elastomeric materials, and polyvinyl fibre concrete, to be precise, three different designs in three different pairs of support columns) shook a 33.5 metre, 190 tonne concrete bridge with three “shake tables” that simulated a 8.0 earthquake on December 11th.

The test was the second of three at this unprecedented scale—the first one back in February 2007 shook a conventional bridge, representing the current bridge-building practice. The third test will use fibre composites as the primary resisting force in the column and the beam as a kind of shell around the concrete.

The realistic shimmying and shaking lasted only ten dramatic seconds, after nearly a year of design, construction and preparation, as instruments feverishly recorded 400 streams of data.

While the event was pitched to the media in the spirit of relishing destruction—the original, irresistible press release was titled “Researchers build 110-foot bridge replica just to knock it down”—the principal investigator Mehdi Saiidi is clearly a much more constructive personality. “I can’t describe how much enjoyment and excitement it is to be able to see these new innovative details perform,” he says. “In every test we do, we push things to failure with the hope that some day, this could get into practice and be used.”

You can see the quake at the end of the “B roll” footage the University prepared for television news, which is included with the newest press release. The rest of the footage includes informative interviews and shots of preparation.

The Nevada lab is part of the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES).