Report of the Building 9207 air bag test

摘要

As part of a major testing program now underway at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant, managed by Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc. (MMES), a full-scale air bag test was conducted in Building 9207. The test program, supported and managed by the Center for Natural Phenomena Engineering (CNPE), is intended to determine the stiffness and strength of unreinforced hollow clay tile walls (HCTVS) in order to more accurately analyze and predict the response of buildings containing these type of walls, especially when subjected to seismic and high wind loadings. The air bag test was a very large undertaking that started more than a year before the test was actually performed. Preparation for the test included the following activities: (1) preparation of the wall and the adjacent building areas; (2) design and field fabrication of test supporting structures; (3) procurement of equipment and instrumentation; (4) development of supporting test procedures and checklists; (5) installation of over seventy linear variable differential transformers (LVDTs) and strain gages; (6) development of computer programs for use in the data acquisition systems; (7) extensive review into the existing engineering literature; (8) discussions with researchers with prior experience performing air bag tests; (9) coordination with the building operators; (10) plant safety reviews; and (11) dry runs of the test itself.