We are currently gauging interest in adding a Seismic Design Competition to the 2021 NZSEE Conference. Within the competition, teams of undergraduates, postgraduates, and early career practitioners would design and build a small-scale earthquake resistant building that would be tested on a shake table during the conference. Requirements for participants would include (1) creating or joining a team, (2) designing and building a scale building model, and (3) testing your model at the conference. Teams are limited to 4 participants and multiple teams from individual firms and universities are encouraged.
Detailed rules for the competition have not been finalized; however, for your reference, preliminary requirements for design of the model building have been included below. It is envisioned that the buildings will be fairly simple and the final rules will be written to ensure the time commitment for participants is minimal.
Preliminary Building Model Requirements
The approximate footprint of the building will be 200 mm x 200 mm. The building will be required to have a minimum of three stories with typical story heights of 200 mm. The model building must be capable of supporting approximately 40 kg distributed between the floors. Teams may select materials for design of the gravity and seismic resisting systems, however the diaphragms must be constructed using medium density fibreboard.
Interested?
If you would potentially be interested in participating in the competition, please email Max Stephens at the University of Auckland (max.stephens@auckland.ac.nz). Please forward this information to anyone you think might be interested.
