The Centrifuge

In 1968 Peter Rowe designed a powerful centrifuge adjacent to the Simon Engineering Laboratories at the University of Manchester. It was built specifically to model dams, but by 1973 there was little demand for this type of research. However, the development of the North Sea oil and gas industry meant that a facility to test offshore platforms under cyclic loading suddenly became important and thereafter the centrifuge was primarily used for this purpose.

This series contains items relating only to the general use of the centrifuge at the University of Manchester. For papers relating to the use of the centrifuge to test offshore structures, see PWR/5/5.