In 2022, a leading national structural research institute completed a series of full scale shake table tests on a 3 story full size residential building constructed entirely with EPS Cement Sandwich Panel walls, to measure its performance under extreme simulated earthquake conditions. The test was designed to replicate the exact ground motion recorded during some of the most powerful historical earthquakes ever recorded, to validate the real world safety of the wall system.
During the first test phase, the building was subjected to simulated magnitude 7 earthquake ground motion. After the shaking stopped, engineers inspected the entire structure and found zero visible cracks anywhere in the wall system. The building remained completely intact, and there was no damage to any wall joint or connection point. The test engineers then increased the intensity to simulate a magnitude 8 earthquake event. This time, very fine hairline cracks began to appear at a small number of wall joints, but the walls remained completely standing and there was no structural damage at all.
Finally, the test team pushed the simulation all the way to a magnitude 9 extreme earthquake event that far exceeds the maximum expected seismic activity for almost any populated region on Earth. Even at this extreme intensity, the EPS Cement Sandwich Panel walls never collapsed. The only damage was some minor cracking at the wall to foundation connection points, which is designed as a controlled failure point to absorb seismic energy and protect the rest of the structure. At no point during the extreme shaking did any part of the walls break loose and fall inward or outward, which means all occupants inside the building would have remained completely safe throughout the entire earthquake event.
