New SoFSI facility ready for infrastructure shake up

The Soil-Foundation-Structure Interaction (SoFSI) laboratory, based at the University of Bristol’s Langford Campus to the south of the city, is claimed to be the first of its kind in the world. Backed by £12m in funding from EPSRC, SoFSI will allow researchers to explore how infrastructure such as bridges, windfarms and rail projects like HS2 interact with the ground when subjected to dynamic loads.

Equipment at the facility includes a 6m x 5m x 4m soil pit, a 50-ton capacity biaxial shaking table for dynamic testing of structures, as well as a smaller, high-performance, six-axis shaking table. It will be run by the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC), an academic consortium made up of 13 of the UK’s leading universities, including Bristol. Initial research at SoFSI will focus on five key areas: nuclear power plant soil-structure interaction, high speed rail, offshore wind turbines, monopiles and pile groups, and integral bridges.