Active learning methodologies for structural dynamics

Resumen

Structural dynamics is the part of structural mechanics dealing with time-changing loads. Earthquakes are the quintessential dynamic action for structures; they cause recurrent economical and human losses which justify a thorough inclusion of dynamics in structural engineering syllabuses; however, due to the implicit difficulty of the subject, this is not the current situation. To try and amend this fact the authors have designed and built a cheap, digitally-controlled shaking table capable of reproducing all canonical types of ground excitation: impulsive, harmonic or even complete realistic seismic events. A portfolio of small experiments using the table and simple models has been created. This paper describes the tentative implementation of this portfolio in undergraduate, graduate and MOOC courses and the teaching results obtained