Since the results of the full scale tests were highly variable, the behavior of the concrete block surcharge stacks was explored more in detail in the Centrifuge Laboratory at Pretoria University, which officially opened in June 2012.
The laboratory is among the most advanced technical institutes in this field worldwide, and has outstanding technical highlights to offer. The centrifuge, manufactured by the French company Actidyn, can accelerate a mass weighing up to one ton to 150 times Earth's gravity (150G). This extremely high acceleration is needed to simulate as realistically as possible the complex stresses and strains occurring in the soil.