2006 Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition

Competition Date: January 28th, 2006

Location:	Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL)
	Ketter Hall, The State University of New York at Buffalo

Download 2006 USDC Rules here (.pdf)

	Ground Motions

Competition Objectives

To provide civil engineering undergraduate students an opportunity to do a hands on project and gain practical experience by designing and fabricating a cost effective frame structure, which will withstand severe earthquake simulation.
To build the awareness of the versatile activities at MCEER among the civil engineering students and faculty at the core universities as well as the general public in order to encourage national-wide participation.
To increase the attentiveness of the value and benefit of the Student Leadership Council (SLC) representatives and officers among the core universities for the recruitment and development of SLC, which is a key liaison between MCEER students and the MCEER center.

Structural Design Objectives

Your team has been hired to design and construct a multi-story office building. To verify the design and construction concepts, a scaled model must be constructed from balsa wood and will be tested under severe earthquake simulation. Model structures shall be constructed at a scale of 72:1 and have a maximum of 38 floors (max. height of 6’6”). Structures will be tested on one of the earthquake simulation shaking tables. Structures are subjected to scaled ground motion simulations from the 1940 El Centro, 1994 Northridge and 1995 Kobe earthquakes.

Team Applications are due by October 19th, 2005. Applications can be downloaded here.

See the 2006 competition rules for eligibility requirements, building construction details, structural testing, competition scoring, and oral presentation details.

Results of last year's competition can be found at: http://www.mceer.buffalo.edu/slc/SeisComp/USDC_05.htm