The scope of 3D printing has gotten much bigger over the years, so much so that 3D-printed buildings are on track to become less of a novelty. A team of scientists from the UK, more specifically professors from the University of Bristol, have thankfully been hard at work developing a giant simulator capable of testing these 3D printed buildings for safety in the event of natural disasters like earthquakes by shaking them.
The simulator is essentially a huge table with mounting brackets to hold 3D-printed structures in place. The team can program a handful of movements, particularly horizontal motions, which can provide a look at how the structure will behave during sudden seismic activity. This work is being handled in the University of Bristol's Soil Foundation Structure Interaction Laboratory (SoFSI) and has been showcased by the BBC, which claims this project is the first of its kind.
