The University of Minnesotas new $84.5 million Physics and Nanotechnology Building offers space for hundreds of students, faculty and visiting researchers, including this study area. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)

Vibration testing may not sound like the most fascinating task in the world, but it provided some dramatic moments during construction of the University of Minnesotas new $84.5 million Physics and Nanotechnology Building.

The recently opened 144,000-square-foot building, at 115 Union St. S.E. on the U of Ms East Bank in Minneapolis, accommodates laboratories and clean rooms where people conduct critical research thats highly sensitive to vibration.

After the concrete was poured, the project team tested the building for shakes, rattles and rolls by having trucks drive by on the adjacent street. On the inside, vibration monitoring equipment rested on the concrete to measure the effects of the noise and traffic.

We all kind of held our breath, said Steve Campbell, director of the Minnesota Nano Center in the College of Science and Engineering.

We modeled it, built it and tested it to see if it actually met the requirements at the end, added Matt Stringfellow, a U of M senior project manager who worked on the building. That was a tense moment.

Fortunately for the project team, the building met the strict requirements, though it will be tested yet again when the Green Line light rail trains start running on nearby Washington Avenue in mid-June.

We will see if theres a negative impact or not, Stringfellow said. I think, because of the design and the modeling we have done, we are not really worried about it.

The project was completed last fall after more than two years of construction, and people have been working there since January.

On Wednesday, U of M officials showed off the building to the news media in advance of a public open house.

Originally posted here:

Not your parents physics building