Welcome to the Center for Geotechnical Modeling (CGM) at UC Davis. We have a long history of providing users, both national and international, with access to world-class geotechnical centrifuge modeling facilities for research on the performance of soil and soil-structure systems affected by earthquake, wave, wind and storm surge loadings. For example, we currently operate as a national shared-use Equipment Facility in the National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored Natural Hazards and Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) network.
Geotechnical centrifuges enable the use of scale models to accurately represent nonlinear, stress-dependent responses of soil masses that are many times larger than is possible on the world’s largest 1-g shaking tables. The centerpiece of our facility is one of the largest centrifuges equipped with a shaking table in the world, which enables researchers to perform experiments with a holistic-level of complexity that is not possible with smaller scale centrifuges. Visit our Vision and Facility pages to learn more about our centrifuges and their uses.
We hope you will explore our web site to learn more about our facility, the research performed here, and the various resources which may be of interest you.
Visit our CGM Facebook page for more photos and recent activities.
Visit the DesignSafe-CI website (designsafe-ci.org) for information about other NHERI Equipment Facilities and natural hazards engineering activities.
Photos: External researchers led two-thirds of the research projects at our facility over the past decade.