iSTAR engineering lab receives $1 million award

The Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center [Oregon BEST] is awarding $1 million to four Oregon university labs, including Portland State’s infra-Structure Testing and Applied Research [iSTAR] laboratory, which will continue to increase its seismic research and testing capabilities. The award was effective as of July 2010 and will be disbursed in phases over the course of the next year.

The iSTAR lab tests new materials and building systems to understand their performance and safety characteristics prior to adoption into buildings, said Peter Dusicka, an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He and researchers at iSTAR use seismic research to make a variety of structures and building materials resistant to natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis.

“We have had knowledge for the last 30 years that there will be a large subduction quake from the coast in the next few hundred years,” said Franz Rad, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.  “Whether it will be 150 or 700 years from now we don’t really know, but we do know that the probability of this earthquake happening increases every year.”

As the probability of a large coastal subduction earthquake increases every year, so does the importance of the seismic research and testing done at the iSTAR laboratory.

While many universities are able to generate computer models of how earthquakes and tsunamis will affect structures, PSU is the only university in the Northwest that is capable of physically testing these scenarios, according to Rad.

“PSU has the only functioning shake table in the Northwest,” Rad said. “The shake table gives us the opportunity to investigate how buildings, towers, walls and retaining walls will react when the big earthquake hits.”

The research and tests done with instruments such as the shake table are extremely vital to the stability and overall safety of cities and the people living in them. Unfortunately, it is a lengthy process from the time this research is completed to when it is actually put into city code, Rad said.

For the past three years the iSTAR lab has been researching how to create stronger connections between structural reinforcing bars in buildings. After the research and papers are completed in the next couple of years, it will take an additional five or six years for research findings to be put into building code. Implementation of these codes will follow in the next couple years after they have been approved.

“It takes about a decade for our research to be fully implemented,” Rad said.

In addition to providing university-led research, the iSTAR lab is also a source for industry and economic growth. Oregon BEST hopes that in helping to fund labs like iSTAR it will help the economy whole by providing research and testing tools for other companies and organizations that would otherwise not be able to afford them, said Greg Kleiner, media relations for Oregon BEST.

For example, a startup solar company that needs to test the functionality of their new photovoltaic cells could come to a university lab instead of buying all the testing equipment themselves.

“The purpose of this funding is to expand the Oregon BEST network of lab facilities,” Kleiner said. “Our aim is to expand this lab network so green companies that otherwise would not have access to expensive research and testing equipment can attain the testing they need through a university like PSU.”

This availability of testing and research will benefit both the job market and the economy, he said. In addition, by expanding the research capabilities of labs like iSTAR, Oregon BEST can also expand the job market for graduating students interested in engineering and sustainability.

According to Kleiner, funding for the investment comes directly from the Oregon State Legislature.

“[Through the] economic development engine that the state legislature has established, Oregon BEST receives a couple million dollars every two years to invest in research facilities like the iSTAR lab,” Kleiner said. “The hope of Oregon BEST is that this award will act as a seed investment, attracting research dollars from state and national levels.

Revenue translates into new labs and new jobs.”