£12m ‘world-first’ centre set to change future of major infrastructure construction

A deep soil pit and high-performance shaking tables are two of the key features of a new state-of-the-art facility opened by Bristol University.

Said to be the first of its kind in the world, the £12m centre promises to deliver significant financial savings and reduce the carbon cost of major infrastructure projects, while also improving resilience, by providing a test lab for prototype experiments.

The new UKCRIC Soil-Foundation-Structure Interaction (SoFSI) facility officially opened its doors at the university’s Langford Campus on Thursday. It has been designed for research into five core areas that include nuclear power plant soil-structure interaction, high speed rail, offshore wind turbines and integral bridges.

The lab will allow researchers and industry to investigate how foundations, dynamic loading and soil interact so they can identify more efficient building methods and significantly improve the safety of major new infrastructure projects.

The £12m centre promises to deliver significant financial savings and reduce the carbon cost of major infrastructure projects – photo: Bristol University

“Ensuring the long-term safety of critical infrastructure is paramount, particularly when it comes to building nuclear power stations or high-speed rail,” explains professor of earthquake engineering, Anastasios Sexos.

“The aim of this testing facility is to inform design that is not only safer but also cost-efficient. Investigating how buildings and infrastructure interact with the ground under natural and man-made hazards allows us to improve the smartness and resiliency of our infrastructure while at a lower financial cost and a reduced environmental footprint.”

The University of Bristol received £12m from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for the construction of the SoFSI lab, which boasts a deep soil pit for testing foundations, a 50-ton capacity biaxial shaking table for dynamic testing of structures and a smaller, high-performance, six-axis shaking table.

The new facility will help the university remain at the “forefront of global research” – photo: Bristol University

Dr Flavia De Luca, a senior lecturer in structural and earthquake engineering, said: “At the University of Bristol, we’re investing in state-of-the-art testing facilities that will help cut the cost of building the infrastructure of the future.

“For example, high speed rail will require many new bridges to cross waterways, roads, and other rail lines. SoFSI has been designed to help us understand, among other issues, how the span of lower cost, minimal maintenance integral bridges can be extended so that new high speed railway lines would be faster to construct, cheaper to maintain, more resilient to climate change, and enable us to minimise resource requirements.”

Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, professor Ian Bond added: “Investing in our state-of-the-art research facilities within the Faculty of Engineering keeps us at the forefront of global research across a wide range of fields and positions our researchers to support the delivery of carbon net zero.”

Main photo: Bristol University 

Read more: New chapter for award-winning tech incubator 

Listen to the latest Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast: