RAPID for NEES and E-Defense Collaboration: U.S. Instrumentation and Data Processing for the Four-Story Reinforced Concrete and Post-Tensioned E-Defense Building Tests

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

Researchers from Japan and the United States have been collaborating during the past two years on building tests to be conducted at the E-Defense shake table facility in Miki City, Japan, in December 2010, where two four-story, full-scale buildings will be tested side by side subjected to three dimensional seismic shaking. As the outcome of this international planning, U.S. researchers have the opportunity to provide additional sensors on the test specimens to enable measurement of more detailed building response during the tests. Through this award, the U.S. research team will provide additional sensors, cables, and data acquisition systems for the testing in addition to the 400 sensors being provided by the Japanese; the Japanese E-Defense staff will install the U.S. sensor mounts, sensors, and cables. This additional data will enable improved building model calibration and/or calibration for flexure and for shear-flexure interaction. Data obtained from these tests will be archived in the NEES Project Warehouse data repository (http://www.nees.org). This award also provides travel support for faculty and students to participate in the testing in Japan and process the data, and to continue collaboration with Japan on analytical building models. Intellectual Merit: These two building tests are each multi-million dollar tests and the United States currently does not have facilities to conduct such tests. These tests will provide data for the U.S. earthquake engineering community to learn about the behavior and response of three-dimensional buildings subjected to a range of ground motion intensities, including motions expected to produce near-collapse. The additional sensors will measure local response quantities to aid in the development and calibration of analytical models and to improve understanding of a very commonly used building system (internationally). Broader Impacts: This award is an outcome of active collaborations between Japanese and U.S. researchers on the instrumentation needed to record detailed response data that is critical to improve understanding of the seismic performance of building systems. The data will be archived in the NEES Project Warehouse and be publicly available for reuse by researchers and practitioners. Results of this research will be presented at major U.S. and international conferences.