Researchers at Zhejiang University have installed the CHIEF1900, a colossal hypergravity centrifuge with a capacity of 1,900 g·tonne, making it the most powerful machine of its kind. Built to compress time and space, it will let scientists simulate catastrophic events like dam failures and millennia of soil pollution within a laboratory setting.
Imagine studying what happens to a 300-meter dam over 50 years in just a few months, or watching how pollutants seep through the earth over millennia in a single day. That’s the revolutionary promise of a new machine in China. Zhejiang University has taken delivery of the CHIEF1900, a record-shattering centrifuge that will generate forces hundreds of times stronger than Earth’s gravity, according to the university. This allows researchers to literally compress time and distance, turning years of real-world observation into controlled lab experiments.
The machine, built by the Shanghai Electric Nuclear Power Group, was shipped to the university’s campus on December 22 for installation. Its key metric is its staggering 1,900 g·tonne capacity—a unit combining gravitational force and sample mass. This officially dethrones its sibling, the CHIEF1300, which only began operations in September with a 1,300 g·tonne capacity and briefly held the world record, reported the South China Morning Post (SCMP). Before that, the global leader was a machine operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers in Mississippi, with about 1,200 g·tonne.
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Both centrifuges are part of the ambitious Centrifugal Hypergravity and Interdisciplinary Experiment Facility (CHIEF), a national lab buried 15 metres (49 feet) underground to ensure stability. Approved in 2021 with a budget of 2 billion yuan (US$285 million), the facility is a cornerstone of China’s push to build elite research infrastructure and is open to international scientists. How does it work? By spinning massive samples at extreme speeds, the centrifuge creates hypergravity. This acceleration compresses time; a model subjected to 100 times Earth’s gravity (100g) for one day experiences stresses equivalent to decades in the real world.
“We aim to create experimental environments that span milliseconds to tens of thousands of years, and atomic to [kilometre] scales,” said Professor Chen Yunmin, CHIEF’s chief scientist at Zhejiang University. This capability is transformative for fields from civil engineering to environmental science. To test a hypothetical 300-metre (984 feet) tall dam, engineers can build a three-metre scale model and spin it at 100g. The stresses on the small model in the centrifuge will perfectly mirror those on the full-size structure, revealing potential failure points long before construction begins.
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The engineering challenges were monumental. At such extreme rotational speeds, managing heat was critical. The team, a multidisciplinary group from civil engineering to thermodynamics, had to invent a novel cooling system from scratch. They developed a vacuum-based system using the world’s largest flange diameter, combining vacuum pumping, glacier coolant, and forced-air ventilation to dissipate the immense heat and ensure stable operation.
The applications are vast and profound. Beyond dams, CHIEF can simulate earthquake effects on foundations, study how high-speed rail tracks interact with the ground, or track the migration of a chemical plume through soil over 10,000 years in a matter of weeks. “It gives us the chance to discover entirely new phenomena or theories,” Professor Chen stated. This machine isn’t just about breaking records; it’s about breaking the constraints of traditional research, offering a profound new lens through which to understand our world—and build a safer, more resilient one.
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