Development of a Multi Modular platform for seismic engineering courses and research

Small-scale shaking tables are usually employed in seismic engineering for studying structural models' dynamic behavior and for investigating innovative solutions, as active and passive structural control systems. In an increasingly complex and dynamic world, the ability of responding community natural disasters, such as those induced by earthquakes, is also becoming a pressing issue. With the aim of supporting the research in the field of resilience and emergency management, with particular reference to earthquakes, this paper has the main goal of illustrate the development of a multi modular platform to be used by students during dynamic and seismic courses. Indeed, another peculiarity of this platform, with respect to literature, is that the system has been entirely developed by undergraduate students at the Politecnico di Torino, for both the unidirectional and bidirectional applications. Virtual reality is also an additional tool that can enrich the possible applications of the proposed shaking table in the seismic engineering research field. Indoor and outdoor virtual environments have been developed for reproducing the emergency conditions, where the human response to earthquake shaking can be explored by employing both ground shaking and floor response records as well. The project under consideration is rooted in the perspective of realizing a vibrating table capable of simulating the earthquake and, through instrumentation, measuring the stress characteristics and deformation. Specifically, it is an instrument designed to replicate a seismic event seismic on structural model of a reduced scale, such as a building, a bridge, or, at a larger scale, a portion, e.g. a district, of an urban area. With the prototype of a shaking table herein proposed it is possible to reproduce a seismic event on a model of structure and to execute hybrid simulations. The university experience of students in understanding the intricacies of real structural systems results consequently improved by visualizing their complex behavior when subjected to earthquake loading.