SOIL-STRUCTURE INTERACTION LAB

School of Mechanical Engineering - University of Campinas

Particle accelerators, nuclear powerplants and concert halls all have one thing in common. They are large-scale, vibration-sensitive structures, whose design requires special methods and models. How can we design stadium-sized structures like the Sirius Project to limit their vibration to within fractions of the width of a hair?

In our laboratory, we try to answer these questions by modeling how foundations, structures and soil behave and interact with each other when they are under vibratory loads, such as those caused by nearby traffic and earthquakes. We also try to understand how to protect a vibration-sensitive structure by using trenches and barriers or by finding optimal shapes for the structure itself.

Supporting this main line of study, we also work on numerical methods of analysis, numerical integration schemes, high-performance and parallel computing, and machine learning-assisted signal processing.

Prof. J. Labaki - Laboratory Head

Sala São Paulo - a concert hall whose performance may be affected by nearby train traffic.