Home : Payload Proposal Information

Payload Opportunities

The proposed study will provide opportunities for several studies that could utilize the unique experimental setups, the experimental results and the numerical and visualization tools developed. In consultation with other researchersaround the country the following potential payload projects have been identified:

i.	Evaluation of the Fire Protection Effectiveness of Partitions and Ceilings: The FM Global Insurance Company has expressed a strong interest to fund fire experiments on partition and ceiling specimens damaged during the subsystem experiments at the UB-NEES Site in order to evaluate their fire effectiveness following an earthquake; the large furnaces at NGC Testing Services located in Buffalo will be used for these experiments;
ii.	Advanced Sensors and Instrumentation: Collaborative projects will be developed using the project’s experimental sites to apply innovative measurement technologies;
iii.	Seismic experiments of new steel beam-to-column connections: Following the Northridge earthquake several studies have been performed on the development of improved steel beam-to-column connections (dog-bone, haunch plates etc.). The UNR test bed structure allows studying the response characteristics of these connections under realistic seismic loads;
iv.	Implementation of large force capacity MR dampers: The UNR testbed structure provides the unique opportunity to conduct large scale tests on the effectiveness and implementation of Magneto-Rheological (MR) dampers, a promising new technology in the realm of semi-active structural control;
v.	Experimental Studies on exterior wall seismic isolation systems: Exterior enclosure systems (curtain walls, brick veneer walls) could be tested by including such specimens along with the interior systems in this project’s experiments. Such specimens would not interfere with the location of partitions, sprinklers, and ceilings and, therefore, are an ideal additional type of system to study using the same experimental set up; and,
vi.	Community targeted requests for proposals (RFP): Once the project is funded, it is planned to publicly issue an RFP to the community to solicit other payload projects. Part of that RFP would be a technical description of suitability characteristics (e.g., size and mass of specimens, where and how they could be located in the experimental set-ups).

The following themes/audiences have been identified: (i) earthquake engineers and industry interested in the performance of contents and equipment; (ii) fire protection engineers interested in post-earthquake fire protection; and, (iii) simulation and software developers interested in using or extending the developed simulation capabilities.