Swiss university inaugurates Europe’s most powerful centrifuge

The ETH Zurich geotechnical centrifuge measures nine metres across. Keystone-SDA

The federal technology institute ETH Zurich has inaugurated Europe's most powerful geotechnical centrifuge. Researchers use the instrument to simulate the effects of natural hazards, such as earthquakes, on buildings.

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Scientists at ETH Zurich create reduced-scale models and place them at one end of the spinning beam centrifuge. The models are then accelerated so strongly that the g-forces acting on them multiply. In this process the models are exposed to forces of up to 100 g – in other words, one hundred times the Earth’s gravitational force. 

An object that weighs 10 kilograms when stationary behaves in the centrifuge as if it weighed a tonne. This increased gravity allows researchers to test models of buildings and other structures under conditions similar to those in the real world.

The centrifuge can be put to a multitude of uses. For example, it can test bridge constructions. Over 90% of bridges in Switzerland were built before the 1990s and without any or only a simple earthquake-proof design. While retrofitting bridge piers is relatively simple, reinforcing foundations can be difficult, costly and time-consuming.

Offshore wind farms are another example. Far out at sea, these wind turbines are exposed to various forces of nature. Storms and earthquakes can cause the structure to tilt. Even small inclinations of 0.5 degrees can damage mechanical systems and shorten the service life of the turbine.

Translated from German by DeepL/sb

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