Earthquakes and other seismic activities have often been the source of mass destruction and loss of life. To prevent such disasters, devices employing shape memory alloy (SMA) technologies are being considered in this project. The goal of the project is to study the feasibility of using an SMA bracing system to suppress structural vibration due to a base excitation by an experimental approach. In the project, a simple structural model with desired dynamic characteristics was designed, constructed and tested. A harmonic base excitation was employed through the study. The building model was mounted on a shaking platform that was driven by a single axis shaker. Vibrational response of the structure with and without SMA technology was recorded, processed and compared. It was found that the usage of SMA technology has potentials for vibration suppression of structures.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Leboeuf, Jason Matthew
• Holmes, Robert G.
• Gaffney, Matthew Scott

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• 00D212M

Advisor

• Hou, Zhikun
• Mirza, Shaukat

Year

• 2000

Date created

• 2000-01-01

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Mechanical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright