Engineers will use UC San Diego’s shake table to subject a two-story structure to the forces produced by the 6.7 Northridge earthquake to look for ways to design tall wood buildings that can survive big temblors.

The simulation will occur on Friday at the Englekirk Structural Engineering Center in Scripps Ranch, which has been used before to simulate Northridge, a quake that killed 60 people and damaged 40,000 buildings in January 1994.

The new test is being led by the Colorado School of Mines, which is examining the feasibility of constructing quake-resistant wood buildings that could be as tall as 20 stories high.

In a statement, CSM engineer Shiling Pei said, “Designing buildings that are safe even during large earthquakes is hugely important. We are doing that — and we are going further.


“We are working to minimize the amount of time buildings are out of service after large earthquakes. We are also focused on cutting the costs required to repair them.”

Workers constructed a 22-foot tall wood test structure on the shake table. It’s mostly made of cross-laminated timber, a high performance material that might be usable in far taller structures located in seismic zones.

Engineers plan to return to Scripps Ranch in 2020 to build a 10-story earthquake-resistant timber building that will first be shaken, then set on fire.

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