The Undergraduate Seismic Design (USD) Competition is an international competition that is organized annually by Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Student Leadership Councils. The Iowa State USD team is challenged to construct a scaled balsa wood building that is structurally sound and displays resistance against simulated earthquake ground motions. The structure will be tested on a shake table and subjected to three different motions of varying intensities to determine the most successful design.
Our building will be judged on the following parameters:
• Accurately predict building’s behavior under 3 different seismic conditions
• Ability to clearly communicate their structural system concept & method of analysis
• Architecture & profitability of the building
More than 35 teams from the US and around the world will be competing this year’s USDC in Anchorage, Alaska from July 22nd—25th in conjunction with both the 10th Earthquake Engineering (NEES) & EERI’s annual meeting. Last year our team placed 9th competing teams and this year we are in the top ten for the best design proposal category. Therefore, continuing the momentum, we are confident that we will place within the top 3 teams this year.
Click on this link to be part of the team and sponsor us to compete this year!
Last year at the EERI 2013 Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition, ten structures survived all three ground motions: 1940 El Centro, 1994 Northridge, and GM3 (Davis). Out of those 10, Iowa State placed 9th on the income, seismic cost, and analysis prediction categories. Below is the video of the structure surviving the three ground motions and of the periodic natural frequency shaking which finally took it down.