Development of Dynamic Laboratory Platform for Earthquake Engineering Courses

Small-scale shaking table platforms are usually used in seismic engineering courses to study the structural dynamic behavior of small scale specimens and investigate innovative solutions, such as active and passive control systems. Furthermore, they are also useful to actively involve students in learning programs in higher education. This paper illustrates the development and the teaching effectiveness of a multimodular unidirectional platform to be used by students during dynamic and seismic courses within the Shaking Table Educational Program at the Politecnico di Torino. A unique feature of this platform is that the system was entirely developed by undergraduate students. The project was intended to create a shaking table for earthquake simulation that can measure the structural response using sensors located on a specimen, such as a building, a bridge, or any other type of reduced-scale system. Different types of dynamic tests can be reproduced, such as hybrid simulations and pseudodynamic tests. A survey demonstrates the effectiveness of the laboratory experience during seismic engineering courses to improve student learning capabilities through a teaching activity that involves both theoretical and hands-on experience. Currently, the platform has been extended to accommodate bidirectional shaking table tests with the inclusion of augmented reality tools that allow exploring the response of human behavior during a pedestrian evacuation.