ELSA
- European Laboratory for Structural Assessment
MRC members Franco
Vivaldi and David Arrowsmith are co-supervisors of this postgraduate study
project.
Eugenio Gutierrez
is a member of the research staff at ELSA and works primarily in the study
of structural characteristics of building materials. He is currently studying
part-time for a post-graduate degree in the Mathematics Research Centre
at Queen Mary and Westfield College. He has access to laboratory analysis
of impacting behaviour of full scale (5 storey) building structures and
also a analogue bench top simulator. His work is in the theory of impact
oscillations. The main avenues of research have been
-
in developing a
mathematical model of the apparatus
-
analyzing some of
the key behaviour in the mathematical model and comparing and contrasting
with the bench and full scale models
-
predicting behaviour
to be verified by the bench apparatus.
The mathematical
model of the bench apparatus consists of an oscillating end-walled trolley
containing a small mass attached to the end-walls of the trolley by springs.
The oscillatory and impacting behaviour of the ball is studied. The ball
represents a building and the impacting earth tremor is represented by
the trolley.