Dynamic Characterization of Shock Table

Abstract

During earthquakes, structures experience base motion has the potential to damage the structure to different degrees. Understanding the dynamic response of the structure to the base motion is quite important. This is achieved by mounting a scaled model of structures on the Shake Table capable of simulating an earthquake scenario in the laboratory. However, such a facility is quite costly from both a development and operational point of view. The dynamic response of a structure can alternatively be determined using the Shock Table wherein impacts of various degrees are applied. The present study focuses on dynamic characterization of Shock Table in terms of acceleration, force, and dominant frequency. The experimental results extracted are compared with the analytical results derived using the Finite Element (FE) model of Shock Table through ANSYS. A good agreement between experimental and analytical results is observed. Shock Table was subjected to a force of about 1500 kN and has a dominant frequency of about 1 Hz.