![]() ![]() As earthquake engineers, we have to take the opportunity to learn hard lessons from the past in order to prevent them from happening again in the future.”īesides losing most of its downtown and several neighborhoods, 185 lives were lost in the Christchurch earthquakes. “What we learn in Christchurch can be applied to other cities in seismically active areas that haven’t been hit by large earthquakes recently. We haven’t had a large earthquake in the U.S. “The information we gather in New Zealand will help us make sure that we are doing everything we need to do in the U.S. with deep, soft soil deposits – areas including the Los Angeles Basin, the Seattle Basin, the Salt Lake Valley and the New Madrid Seismic Zone. The new techniques and experiments that Cox and his team will be running in Christchurch will ultimately be used to characterize earthquake zones in the U.S. Then, a foundation and structural system best suited for the particular site and building type can be designed. T-Rex can give them that vital information. But first, engineers need to know more about the soil in each area. and other places with similar geotechnical challenges. Information about the shear wave velocity of the soil is used to inform engineers and government officials about what is needed to design quake-resistant structures in given areas."Įngineers are confident they can design structures that can withstand earthquakes in New Zealand, the U.S. Soft soils with slow shear wave velocities tend to amplify shaking during an earthquake. The soil stiffness is quantified by a sheer wave velocity, the speed at which waves generated by the earthquake travel through the soil. "The stiffness and layering of the soil has a profound effect on the strength of shaking felt during an earthquake. "Designing a quake-resistant building starts with the soil," Cox said. The seismic data gathered with T-Rex will inform engineers, on an area-by-area basis, how to rebuild structures in Christchurch to resist future earthquakes. When it arrives in Christchurch, T-Rex will pound and thud the earth, changing its vibration orientation from vertical to horizontal with the push of a button, in order to generate various seismic waves that are recorded by sophisticated sensors placed along the ground surface. Watch Brady Cox explain and demonstrate how the shaker truck works. UT Austin's T-Rex is the only known operating tri-axial vibroseis truck in the country. Stokoe II, is the only site with truck-mounted mobile shakers that can be used to simulate earthquake waves. NEES at UT Austin, led by Civil Engineering professor Kenneth H. NEES has 14 such sites across the country. National Science Foundation and led by Purdue University. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) a national network and simulation resource, funded by the U.S. T-Rex has already rolled its 5-foot-tall tires onto a cargo ship, Tonsberg v302, at Galveston, Texas, and is expected to arrive in New Zealand in early March.Ĭox’s project in Christchurch is one of many with The George E. T-Rex has shaken the ground at sites in the United States, literally from coast to coast, but its trip Down Under will be its first outside the country. Now, he will return in mid-March with T-Rex to verify his findings. In late 2012, assistant professor Brady Cox, a civil engineer at The University of Texas at Austin, first traveled to Christchurch where he used strategically placed arrays of seismometers to record ambient soil vibrations (microtremors) in an attempt to profile the deep, soft sediments underlying the city. This type of soil can liquefy during an earthquake, losing strength and stiffness, causing buildings to sink into the ground and crack apart. This earthquake hot spot on New Zealand's south island has one potentially fatal flaw: It's sitting on a bowl of jelly- deep, sandy, swampy sediment on top of bedrock that traps and compounds the earthquake's vibrations. Since then, as many as 7,500 homes have been abandoned due to earthquake damage, and 30 percent of the structures in its central business district, including more than 20 buildings 15 stories and higher have been demolished. Texas Engineering Diversity and Engagement.Intelligent Systems and Human-Machine Symbiosis.Prospective Undergraduate Info Sessions.National Medals of Science and Technology.Cockrell School Awards for Contributions to Equity in Engineering 2023. ![]() Cockrell School DEI Seed Grants, 2022-23.
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