The Structure Laboratory is specially designed and equipped to conduct experiments on basic structural elements made of concrete, reinforced concrete, and steel materials, as well as any type of structure and structural element experiments arising from research needs. It can test both large and small-scale structural models, as well as full-scale structural elements.
The test room includes a specially designed reinforced concrete test rig that sits on elastomeric bearings independently of the surrounding structure. It has a working platform with a width of 7.5 meters and a length of 14 meters. The rig is tube-shaped, allowing for 1/1 scale frame tests inside the tube. The top deck, with a thickness of 1.00 meter and specially equipped, features loading holes at 100 cm intervals, allowing for loading systems with loads up to 150 tons and multiple forces. Additionally, on this deck, there is a loading frame anchored to the deck with a service load capacity of 100 tons and a self-balancing steel loading frame with a loading capacity of 15 tons.
The test room is equipped with a mobile crane with a lifting capacity of 10 tons and a lifting height of 5.5 meters. The laboratory currently has a 2-actuator system with a capacity of 10 tons, a 3-actuator system with a capacity of 30 tons, hand pumps, electric pumps, force transducers with capacities of 3 tons, 30 tons, and 100 tons, various mechanical comparators with different sensitivities, an Analog-to-Digital Unit (ADU), a sufficient number of LVDTs (Linear Variable Differential Transformers), strain gauges in various sizes, strain indicators, and a small loading frame capable of performing displacement-controlled loading up to 5 tons. The laboratory can produce wooden, steel, concrete, reinforced concrete, and prestressed concrete structural elements (beams, slabs) up to 12 meters in length and conduct bending tests. Frame systems up to 12 meters in length and 4 meters in height can be tested, and all types of building models can be tested under static and displacement-controlled loads.