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ENEA organized a 15 month testing program at the Casaccia Center of Research Laboratory (Rome) to verify and validate the static and seismic behavior of buildings built using the construction system EMMEDUE®.

The program involved, not only  EMMEDUE® and ENEA (Organization for New Technology, Energy and the Environment), but also the ’EUCENTRE(European Center for Earthquake Engineering), the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanoes, the University of Pavia, and the University Institute of Higher Studies of Pavia for the promotion of research on the reduction of seismic risks.

Within the initiative, Glis (Association for isolation and other anti-seismic design strategies), performed tests trials on vibration table tests in October and November of last year on two substructures (models C and H) and a  full scale, two storey building EMMEDUE®.

The prototype building was subjected to increasing levels of seismic intensity, reproducing the conditions of catastrophic earthquakes like that of 1976 in Tolmezzo (in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region) with a magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale and that of 1997 in Colfiorito (the Umbria-Marche region) with a magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scale, as well as past terrible earthquakes in Japan. The test showed the absolute holding power of the systems at the highest level of acceleration, 0.45g, a level which was limited solely and exclusively by the capacity of the vibrating table.  The results of the field tests were very significant, especially when one considers that, over the course of half a day, this tiny 2 story house underwent a series of seismic events with accelerations reaching the highest levels required by building codes without incurring any damage.

The purpose of conducting the experiments on models C and H, on the other hand, was to test the resistance of wall to wall connections and wall to roof connections during a seismic event.

These tests were also performed on a vibrating table using the same stresses applied to the 2 story structure. The only difference was, because of the smaller dimensions and the lighter mass of the specimen, it was possible to apply acceleration peaks well over the 0.45g limit required by building codes.

Last February, EMMEDUE®, through its Ecuadorian partner Panecons,   provided for additional tests on the vibrating table.  The testing took place at the Laboratory of the Department of Structural Engineering at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in Lima.

The full scale, 2 storey structure was tested on the vibrating table and underwent the same seismic stresses experienced during the earthquake in Chimbote, Peru on May 31, 1970.

That earthquake was recorded with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale.

Like the structure tested at Enea, here the test accelerogram was characterized by different peaks of acceleration. To obtain a complete range of tests, the tests were subdivided into 4 phases, from a small scale earthquake (0.1g) up to an earthquake of catastrophic proportions (0.5g).

In the most severe test, where the structure underwent stress from maximum acceleration (a catastrophic earthquake, phase 4), the testing instruments measured the structure’s resistance to acceleration to be more than 4 times greater than that required by local building codes.

This means that, in reality, the tested structure on the vibrating table in Peru, would not have only survived the earthquake of Chimbote, but would have even had sufficient resistance to be able to withstand a seismic event a good 4 times greater than that required by local building codes.

Examine the videos of the seismic testing at ENEA (Rome - Italy):

 Two storey model

 Models C and H

Examine the seismic testing in Lima (Peru):

 Examine the original approval documents from Peru.

 Examine the extraordinary video of the seismic testing in Peru.