10m Beam Centrifuge
The CUED 10m beam centrifuge is the main focus of centrifuge based geotechnical modelling at Cambridge. This machine has a 150g-tonne capacity, achieving a maximum centrifugal acceleration of approx. 130g at 4.125m radius.
The beam centrifuge was built in the early 1970s to designs by P. Turner. Further details on the design and construction of this centrifuge can be found in the article on Centrifuges in Soil Mechanics by Schofield and Turner.
The large capacity of this centrifuge together with it's physical size give great scope for the building of novel experimental packages. Electrical and Hydraulic slip-rings are available for the passing of water, compressed air and power to packages, enabling complex actuators to be constructed and used. A great deal of experience has been accumulated over the past 30 years, enabling actuators for such diverse situations as creating earthquake loading and climatic fluctuations to be created.
Large numbers of experiments have been carried out on the beam centrifuge over the last 30 years. At present, major projects include PhD projects on Earthquakes, Embankments, Tunnelling and contaminated land, together with several commercial projects.
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