Description

Short technical description: This piece of equipment is one of the biggest stars at the Nantes facility and almost always a highlight on the Center's guided tour. Operational since 1985 within a specially-fitted 900-m2 building, the geotechnical centrifuge - affectionately known as the "centrif" - allows studying the behavior of geotechnical structures, such as foundations, offshore anchorages, embankments or supports, using reduced-scale models. The scale-reduction factor of the models is equal to the centrifugal acceleration being applied, up to a maximum of 200 G! The loads are applied in flight using jacks or the robot, controlled from the centrifuge operator's room. The results obtained may then be directly transposed to the full-sized structures. Thanks to the assistance provided by the Division for Metrology and Instrumentation as well as the centrifuge team own workshops, all of the experimental phases can be conducted on site, from the assembling of test models to the processing of data collected during testing. The centrifuge team includes 7 permanent people. Construction date: 1985 Last upgrade: 1998

Keywords

Footing, deep foundation, tunnel, cavity, retaining wall, slope, embankment, earthquake, Bearing capacity

Comment

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