Geotechnical Foundation • Pipeline • Anchor Performance Testing

The Challenge

Validating the large-scale performance of geotechnical infrastructure – such as foundations, piles, pipelines, and anchors – under real-world soil conditions is inherently challenging. Full-scale field testing is often impractical due to cost, time, and environmental variability. While numerical simulations can model these systems, they rely heavily on assumptions about soil behavior, many of which must be validated through physical testing. Key parameters governing soil-structure interaction – especially under non-linear and dynamic conditions – remain difficult to predict with confidence without experimental evidence.

Our Solution

Centrifuge modeling offers a reliable, time-efficient, and cost-effective approach for studying complex geotechnical problems. By reproducing realistic stress conditions at small scale, this technique provides high-fidelity physical data on soil behavior and soil-structure interactions, particularly where gravity is a primary driving force.

C-CORE operates one of Canada’s most advanced centrifuge testing facilities. Our 5.5 m radius beam centrifuge is capable of subjecting payloads to gravitational forces ranging from 10g to 200g, with a maximum rotational speed of 189 rpm. The system is powered by a 500 kW (600 hp) direct-drive motor coupled to a precision 9:1 gear system, and can accommodate:

  • 2200 kg at 100g, or
  • 650 kg at 200g.

Our system includes over 80 channels of data acquisition, capturing pore pressure, displacement, strain, temperature, and load measurements in real time. Custom-built actuators and instrumentation are engineered to withstand extreme centrifugal forces – up to 100 times their own mass during testing. Our centrifuge is uniquely positioned to conduct cold-weather modeling, enabling tests that replicate the impact of Arctic and sub-Arctic conditions on infrastructure systems.

Typical test campaigns support the performance validation of:

  • Pipeline-soil interactions
  • Anchor and pile capacity
  • Frost heave effects on buried infrastructure
  • Embankment and slope stability

Test durations vary depending on the complexity of the scenario – from single-hour simulations to multi-day continuous flights. Our longest test to date ran for 70 hours at 48g, simulating over 18 years of frost heave.

C-CORE’s centrifuge testing provides the critical physical validation required to complement and calibrate numerical models, reduce uncertainty, and improve the safety and reliability of infrastructure design in complex geotechnical environments.