China has unveiled a record breaking hypergravity machine capable of generating forces nearly 2,000 times stronger than Earth’s gravity, a development that researchers say could dramatically compress years of physical processes into laboratory experiments. According to a report by the South China Morning Post , the machine is designed to recreate extreme real world conditions ranging from earthquakes to dam failures inside a controlled research environment.
The system, known as CHIEF1900, was built at Zhejiang University’s Centrifugal Hypergravity and Interdisciplinary Experiment Facility in eastern China. At full power, it can generate 1,900 g tonnes of force, a measure that combines gravitational acceleration with mass. This makes it the most powerful centrifuge of its kind in the world, surpassing both China’s earlier CHIEF1300 system and the long standing record holder operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers in Mississippi.
Researchers describe the machine as a way to effectively compress space and time. By spinning scaled down models at extreme speeds, scientists can simulate how massive structures behave over decades or even centuries in a matter of hours or days. For example, a dam nearly 1,000 feet tall can be modeled at a fraction of its size and subjected to forces that reveal structural weaknesses under conditions equivalent to major floods or seismic events.
Beyond civil engineering, the hypergravity system opens doors to research in transportation, environmental science, and materials engineering. High speed rail infrastructure can be tested for resonance and fatigue, while long term soil pollution patterns can be examined under accelerated conditions. The facility can also be used to study how plants, cells, and advanced materials respond to extreme stress, information that could influence everything from construction standards to biological research.
Building a machine capable of such forces required overcoming major engineering challenges. Spinning heavy payloads at extreme speeds generates intense heat and mechanical stress. To manage this, engineers developed a vacuum based temperature control system that combines coolant circulation with forced air ventilation to keep the centrifuge stable during operation.
According to Chen Yunmin, a professor at Zhejiang University and chief scientist on the project, the goal is to create experimental environments that span vast ranges of time and scale, from milliseconds to thousands of years, and from atomic structures to kilometer sized systems. As countries invest more heavily in infrastructure resilience and disaster prevention, machines like CHIEF1900 could reshape how engineers and scientists predict failure, design safety margins, and prepare for extreme events long before they occur.
