The Laboratory for Structures

Performs independently, or together with individual sections of the Department of Structures, static and dynamic, short-term and long-term tests of building, civil and mechanical engineering structures, including their structural elements, sub-assemblages and assemblages, in the laboratory and in the field.

The main testing equipment of the Laboratory for Structures consists of:

• a 14 x 26 m testing floor, with a load-carrying capacity of ą1000 kN/m2,
• two compression testing-machines of capacity 5 MN,
• a single-component shaking-table with a 1.4 x 2.4 m platform (maximum payload: 4000 kg, maximum acceleration: 6g),
• a set of one-way acting Amsler hydraulic jacks of capacity 5 kN to 1 MN,
• a set of 2-way acting programmable Schenck hydraulic actuators of capacity 40 kN to 1 MN,
• a model HP 33120A Hewlett-Packard function generator,
• low-frequency and high-frequency Amsler pulsators,
• UPM 60 and UPH 3200 Hottinger universal data-acquisition scanning systems (220 channels, for static tests),
• a set of KWS and Accudata amplifiers (40 channels, for dynamic tests), a
• 16-channel DAP 2400 transportable spectral analyser,
• 4-channel Hewlett-Packard oscilloscopes, laboratory and portable Hewlett-Packard and Compaq computers, with data acquisition software,
• state-of-the-art tranducers for the measuring of forces, pressures, strains, displacements, velocities and accelerations,
• a Messphysik video-extensometer, with an accuracy of 0.1 ľm over a length of 100 mm, for contactless measurements,
• Zeiss precise theodolites and levelling equipment,
• a Leica 2002 electronic distance measurer, with an accuracy of 1 mm over 10 km,
• a Zeiss optical plumb,
• weigh-in-motion equipment.