NEES Shake-table 7-story house test (Image: John van de Lindt, Colorado State University)

This note is a bit last minute but if you have time tomorrow morning (Tuesday, 7/14) at 11:00 am EDT, then you can watch the largest wooden building shake-table test live via webcast.

This building, which consists of a steel story plus six platform-framed wood stories, will be subjected to a nasty (50% increased magnitude) version of the Northridge earthquake. The test will be conducted at a full-size shaketable installation in Kobe, Japan. From the press release:

Visit www.science360.gov/live at 11:00 a.m. EDT on July 14, 2009, to see a live NSF webcast featuring footage from a shake table test from that morning—the world’s largest—and an opportunity to ask questions of the engineers behind the project. Username and password requirements will be waived at 11:00 a.m. EDT for the webcast.

For more information go to NSF’s NEESWood project page. That site also features some interesting videos.