4:00 PM - 4:15 PM
[U12-03] ”q-NAVI":Practice of a structural health monitoring as an initial emergency response support system to earthquake disaster
★Invited Papers
Keywords:structural health monitoring, earthquake disaster, emergency response, risk communication
A q-NAVI system is consisting of the following items; accelerometers, a computer for control and recording, and a data transfer equipment. In a typical system for a middle-rise building, four accelerometers are included. When two or more sensors observe magnitude of building motion exceed the preset threshold, the system starts the damage estimation process in which the maximum inter-story deformation angles are estimated, then compared with the preset criteria. The result is shown to building managers and/or residents as the necessity of evacuation action within a few minutes after the motion subsides. In addition, at the same time, the evaluation result and a part of the observation data are upload to a cloud storage so that stakeholders such as a building owner etc. who are away from the disaster area will be easily recognize the situation.
At the 2018 Osaka Northern Earthquake, a large number of q-NAVI installed buildings were suffered with strong motion and some of them are damaged in non-structural members. Since the earthquake struck early in the morning, all transportation systems, including railroads, were suspended, and as a result, building managers were unable to see the buildings they managed. Even under such circumstances, they could immediately know the building status via the Internet, and later expressed their gratitude.
In addition, as a lesson learned from the 2018 Osaka-ken Northern Earthquake, there is another effect of installing "q-NAVI", which is to quantify the damage situation. In this earthquake, damage to ceilings and partitions was found in many buildings, and the response characteristics of the building (maximum interlayer deformation level, maximum floor acceleration response, etc.) corresponding to the damage to these members were also obtained. Accumulation of such data will lead to the development of earthquake engineering, and the improvement of seismic resistance of society. It is also important for working of SHM to continue maintenance and to make building owners and managers to be aware that such systems are installed in their buildings. This makes us (earthquake engineers) to have conversations about earthquake with q-NAVI users (ordinary people) regularly as well as immediately after earthquakes. We strongly recognize that such daily communication is also the key to maintaining awareness of disaster in society and sustaining resilience.
Reference
[1] Kanda,K., Nakashima, M,. Suzuki, Y., Ogasawara, S (2020), ”q-NAVI”:A case of market-based implementation of structural health monitoring in Japan, Earthquake Spectra, 37(3).