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Simulated Earthquake Helps Engineers Design BridgesBrigham Young University researchers temporarily transformed Redwood Road into a mini-Cape Canaveral late last week.
Unlike the famed launch site of the space shuttle, this muddy corner of South Salt Lake sported a small BYU "rocket." The goal of the rocket device - designed to reach an altitude of about 15 feet - was to create a brief, simulated earthquake.
The launch pad rested on top of a foundation that will one day support a state Route 201 overpass. This low-altitude mission tested the foundation's piling, said BYU's lead researcher Kyle Rollins.
The blast - which unleashed 900,000 pounds of force in 1/10th of a second - will help engineers learn how to design cheaper, sturdier bridges.
"We want to have the bridge safe, but everyone is tight on money and budgets are always getting cut, so we'd like to be able to do that as efficiently as possible," Rollins said.
A major way to cut costs in bridge construction would be to use fewer pilings in the foundation. The pilings, driven into the ground, extend up into an abutment, which is a concrete block. Girders, which sit on the abutment, support the bridge deck.
Rollins said that some engineers suspect that current standards use more pilings than are necessary. But for engineers, hunches are not enough to make wholesale changes to how overpasses are designed.
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12/4/2005 | Viewed 6,367 time(s)
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