China has taken a major leap forward in scientific and disaster research with the launch of CHIEF1900, an advanced gravity simulation machine developed at Zhejiang University. The powerful facility can generate gravity forces nearly 2,000 times stronger than Earth’s, setting a new world record and redefining what can be studied safely inside a laboratory.
The machine allows scientists to observe how extreme forces affect a wide range of subjects, including plants, materials, cells, soil, and large-scale structures. By simulating intense gravitational conditions, researchers can better understand long-term physical and biological changes that would otherwise take decades—or real-world disasters—to observe.
One of CHIEF1900’s most important applications is in disaster prevention and infrastructure safety. Scientists can now recreate and study scenarios such as earthquakes, dam collapses, high-speed railway stress, and large structural failures under controlled conditions. The system also enables researchers to analyze how pollution and sediments move over long periods, providing valuable insights into environmental and climate-related challenges.
CHIEF1900 is a significant upgrade over its predecessor, CHIEF1300, offering substantially higher force capacity and precision. This advancement places China at the forefront of centrifugal modeling and extreme-gravity research, a field critical to engineering, geophysics, environmental science, and urban safety planning.
