Commerical Testing at BEELAB
Bristol Earthquake and Engineering Laboratory Ltd.
The success of the EERC research philosophy of combining analytical techniques, laboratory experiments and measurements on real structures is evident from the many consultancy contracts which have been placed with the research centre by eminent engineering firms, both from the UK and overseas. Expertise in the EERC is in great demand from industry. To this end, a commercial company, Bristol Earthquake and Engineering Laboratory Ltd, BEELAB, wholly owned by the University, has been established to market this expertise, promote collaboration with industry and generate income to support further research.
Drawing on staff and equipment from the EERC and Department of Civil Engineering, BEELAB can offer the advanced technical skills and resources of a leading academic institution to solve complex problems in earthquake engineering and structural dynamics. These have included the analysis of several major dams (e.g. the Victoria Dam in Sri Lanka), several major bridges (e.g. the 3km Straits of Messina suspension bridge), nuclear installations, hospital complexes and large chimneys. Seismic qualification tests on mechanical equipment have also been carried out in the laboratory, whilst dynamic measurements(impact analysis and insitu monitoring) on full scale structures have been undertaken as part of integrity and safety assessments.
Areas of expertise
- Seismic Qualification Testing to Standards including IEEE 344 and the Bellcore specifications
- Earthquake engineering
- Structural Dynamics
- Seismic Analysis
- Dynamic testing
- Prototype monitoring
- Finite element analysis
- Integrity monitoring
- Foundation structure interaction
- Fluid-structure interaction
- Asynchronous motion
- Stochastic analysis
- Dams
- Bridges
- Buildings
- Offshore structures
Facilities
- EPSRC Earthquake simulator
- Signal processing and modal analysis software
- Hammer testing
- Single and Multi-point vibrators
- Prototype monitoring equipment
- Vision-based displacement measurements
- Silicon graphics mainframe
- Sun workstations
- ANSYS, SOLVIA, SAP, FLUSH and in-house packages
Administration and Quality Assurance
BEELAB is administratively independent of the University. It operates a professional Quality Assurance system which complies with the British Standards ISO 9001 (formally BS5750) and BS5882 and has been approved by British Nuclear Fuels Plc, Nuclear Electric Ltd and the Property Services Agency. The Quality Assurance procedures have also been expanded to cover all of the EERC's activities, including Ph.D. research projects.
Seismic Qualification Testing
An important practical application of the EPSRC shaking table is seismic qualification testing of electro-mechanical plant. Such testing is a valuable source of income supporting the continued operation of the shaking table research applications. A number of seismic qualification tests have been done on the EERC shaking table for various clients. These have included tests on rubber vibration isolation bearings for an overhead pipebridge and tests of valves, pumps and other equipment for a stand-by generator set.
For example all nuclear related facilities in the UK, including the electro-mechanical plant within them, are designed to stringent earthquake requirements. This usually involves shaking the equipment with simulated earthquakes to prove its safe operation during and after a seismic event. Each test earthquake lasts about ten seconds and the sequence of shaking is carefully designed to give a realistic test of the equipment under different levels of shaking, including cumulative damage effects. In most cases the final test is at an intensity of shaking 1.4 times greater than the full design earthquake. This is to prove that the equipment is not on the verge of failure at the design earthquake level. After each shake, each item is carefully inspected and functional tests are carried out.
The EERC can perform Seismic Qualification Testing to all relevant standards including IEEE 344 and the Bellcore specifications.