Earthquake simulation

Dynamic experiments on building and non-building structures may be physical – as with shake-table testing – or virtual (based on computer simulation).

Studying a building's response to an earthquake is performed by putting a model of the structure on a shake-table that simulates the seismic loading.

The very first earthquake simulations were performed by statically applying some horizontal inertia forces, based on scaled peak ground accelerations, to a mathematical model of a building.

[2] With the further development of computational technologies, static approaches began to give way to dynamic ones.

[3] Traditionally, numerical simulation and physical tests have been uncoupled and performed separately.