Client: The University of Western Ontario
In March 2015 the University of Western Ontario (UWO) secured multi-million dollar funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to build a unique centrifuge facility at their engineering laboratories in London, Ontario. Created by the Government of Canada in 1997, the CFI develops Canada’s capacity for world-class research and technology.
As part of this CFI funding award, Associate Professor Dr Tim Newson, UWO’s principal investigator and an experienced centrifuge modeller, asked Thomas Broadbent and Sons Ltd to supply the world’s first modular 870 g-tonne, 2.2m diameter geotechnical centrifuge. This unit is capable of operating as a twin concentric shaft (TCS) drum and 30 g-tonne or as a 1.7m radius beam centrifuge. The machine is supplied with a drum environment complete with embedded, high-g multi-channel data acquisition systems and a three-dimensional loading actuator. Broadbent will also provide a full complement of test-specific instrumentation, model preparation equipment and accessories.
The machine design is on schedule for delivery to site in the summer of 2017 and will be commissioned in late 2017.