| $2.1 million provided for testing the earthquake resilience of the US’s critical structures Cornell University is to become a site in an innovative US national earthquake research system linking 15 of the nation's leading engineering schools. A $2.1 million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) is enabling Cornell to develop a state-of-the-art facility, scheduled to open in October 2004, to test the effects of earthquakes on the nation's critical structures. The Cornell facility will become the national centre for calculating the effects of violent earth movements on structures during an earthquake. Soil deformation can rupture underground gas pipelines, water lines and communications conduits. Above ground, seismic movements can severely damage bridge abutments and road surfaces. The Cornell laboratory, collaboration with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), will become a link in an NSF-funded chain of testing and research sites called the George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). The facility is under construction in the Winter Lab in Thurston Hall at Cornell's School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
•Date:
1st May 2003 •Region: N.America •Type:
Article •Topic: Emergency
planning
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