A European first at Hanze: a five-storey timber building was digitally tested for earthquake resilience.
On 8 May, different parts of the building, including floors and walls, were tested simultaneously at facilities in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Greece. Through a digital connection, all test sites operated as one integrated system, allowing researchers to measure the behaviour of the entire building. Vibrations affecting one component immediately influenced all other components within the digital model.
Until now, earthquake testing has often been carried out separately. One team would analyse the effect on a wall, while another focused on the floor. However, these components interact with one another, meaning separate tests cannot capture the full picture. The Hysteresis project addresses this challenge.
Bringing everything together
For the first time, measurement data from a complex building were combined in real time from multiple locations, as if the structure were being tested as a single unit. No European testing facility currently has the equipment needed to analyse an entire building under earthquake conditions. By virtually linking leading facilities through advanced software, researchers created a distributed testing environment capable of doing exactly that.
From Groningen’s BuildinG facility, researchers Ihsan Bal, Eleni Smyrou and Kamer Ozdemir coordinated the live simulation. In Patras, Greece, damping elements were tested, while in Bristol, UK, timber walls were subjected to earthquake simulations on sandy soil conditions. The resulting reaction forces travelled back to Groningen within milliseconds, where the algorithm continuously adjusted its calculations.
“We hope this test will help engineers gain greater confidence in these systems,” says Bal. “We also want to discover how they can be designed more efficiently.”
Timber instead of concrete
The choice of timber is deliberate. Concrete is responsible for an estimated 5–8% of global CO₂ emissions, while timber stores carbon and is significantly less resource-intensive to produce and transport. However, wider adoption of timber in multi-storey construction requires improved technical guidelines. In the absence of such guidance, builders often rely on heavy concrete foundations that may not always be necessary. This experiment provides data that could help change that.
Relevance for the Groningen region
The findings are directly relevant to the Groningen region. The project improves understanding of how earthquakes affect individual building components, such as floors and walls, and how these components interact. This knowledge can support better assessment and strengthening of existing buildings, while also informing the design of new timber structures.
“It is a long-term investment by Hanze to carry out earthquake-resilience research here in the region. I am proud that we have been able to make this happen,” Bal concludes.
Source: hanze.nl
