The Center for Civil Engineering Earthquake Research (CCEER) is headquartered at the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Nevada, Reno. The center was created in 1984 and it features a $10 million state-of-the-art Large Scale Structures Laboratory specializing in the field of bridge engineering. This laboratory has four high performance shake tables with the capability of simulating l
arge earthquakes and is one of 14 equipment sites in the NSF-funded George E. Almost 20 academic, research, and administrative faculty, research scientists, and technicians are affiliated with the Center for Civil Engineering Earthquake Research, and about 30 doctoral and masters students are engaged in research projects under the Center’s umbrella. In its 25-year history the Center has published more than 160 technical reports which describe the results of these activities. Through these and other publications, the Center has become well known for its work in advancing seismic safety, particularly in the area of highway bridges. A Large-Scale Structures Laboratory is a high-bay laboratory with a strong floor that is used for testing man-made structures under extreme loads up to failure. Both dynamic and quasi-static loads can be used to simulate the effects of earthquakes. To accurately capture failure modes, specimens are built as large as possible (preferably full scale). But in many cases the cost of working at full scale is prohibitive in terms of space and loading requirements, and reduced scale models are used instead, usually between ¼ and ½ scale. Even at this scale, bridge and building specimens are large and can occupy the entire length and width of the laboratory. The LSSL at the University of Nevada, Reno is one of only a few such laboratories in the United States that can work at this scale.
