Cowasjee Earthquake Study Centre (CESNED)

The Department of Civil Engineering established Cowasjee Earthquake Study Centre (CESNED) in year 2001 after the devastating Bhuj earthquake. The objectives of this endeavour include housing national and global data pertaining to earthquakes and act as a centre for disseminating accumulated knowledge, as well to respond to emergency needs and be able to provide guiding principles for pre and post-earthquake mitigation. Recently, CESNED has been strengthened with the installation of a 3m × 3m Shore Western Seismic Table and Syscom Strong Motion Recorder. Earthquake shaking tables is used extensively in seismic research, as they provide the means to excite structures representative of true earthquake ground motions. The shake table system has been used to simulate earthquake loading on masonry structures. A scaled model of a typical block masonry house was recently tested to assess the seismic behaviour of block masonry construction. The activities of CESNED are now administered by the Department of Earthquake Engineering.