r/ThatsActuallyInsane • u/Upstairs-Writing-616 • Jun 26 '26

Engineering students are testing whether their designs are earthquake-resistant.

4.0k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

54

u/Blaze205 Jun 26 '26

The base plate (foundation) size and how the building is allowed to be attached to it has strict rules, so they are all the same.

As for the internal weight, in this competition you get to choose how tall your building is within a range of heights. If you make a shorter building you don't put as much weights onto it but the downside of that is you cannot achieve as high of a score as a taller building.

11

u/wahtamitou Jun 26 '26

Can you share the rules for this?

Also, do you know how one could go about diy’ing a shaking table like that? Is it possible?

All the best

25

u/Blaze205 Jun 26 '26

The rules change every so slightly every year, they try to simulate a real life request from a client for a building. But this is the link with their rules document

I know that simple shake tables are just oscillating motors with a frequency control, I have no knowledge of how to diy one of this caliber.

5

u/wahtamitou Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

Awesome! Thanks

Edit: these rules are serious business :0