By Emily Leung
Daily Bruin Contributor
[email protected]
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UCLA scientists are shaking up the world of seismic research
with increasingly efficient and transportable wireless sensors that
will advance the design of more earthquake-safe buildings.
Researchers can place the wireless sensors on the floor or bolt
them to the walls of buildings any time and anywhere. The sensors
then transmit seismic data to a local mobile command center to be
analyzed by researchers.
Previous seismic monitoring was limited to small scale remakes
of buildings due to tedious and expensive wiring that would
increase with structure size.
The new sensors are cylindrical “data loggers” which
measure acceleration and tension of structures due to applied
forces.
These data loggers would enable researchers to physically chase
down and study the aftershocks of large earthquakes, effectively
turning Southern California into its own earthquake laboratory.
“Say an earthquake happened tomorrow,” said Daniel
Whang, project manager of the George E. Brown Jr. Network for
Earthquake Engineering Simulation. “The day after, I would be
out there instrumenting the building right away by just sticking (a
hundred) sensors in the building and surrounding soil, and then be
able capture that cherished aftershock data.”
The $90 million NEES project, funded by the National Science
Foundation, consists of 15 universities across the nation that
house different special equipment.
 MARY HOLSCHER/ Daily Bruin Staff
The NEES project will provide builders with more information
about how buildings respond to seismic activity, which could save
UCLA millions on costly renovations like the Men’s Gym, damaged in
the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
The goal is to create a collaborative network to facilitate
sharing of facilities, equipment and data via a high-speed Internet
grid.
Researchers from UCLA would have access to tsunami wave basins
at Oregon Sate University, shake tables (objects that produce
simulated vibrations and forces) at the University of Nevada, Reno,
and the centrifuges at UC Davis, among others.
Southern California was chosen as the site to lead the research
because the location has had more than 200,000 earthquakes in the
last decade.
The potential integration and benefits of this innovative
technology will be felt by all Californians, according to UCLA
Earth and Space Science Professor David Jackson.
Traditionally, researchers use small scale models and
centrifuges (which can induce gravity to levels 50 times its normal
level for simulated earthquakes). But the models “have their
limitations”, according to Whang.
“If you look in the real world, it’s a building, a
foundation, and soil beneath it,” Whang said. “The
reduced scale models typically have a part of a building and
neither foundation nor soil.”
Real testing, combined with a flexible wireless technology that
reduces the inconvenience of bulky wiring, has significant
applicability, greatly improving the accuracy of these computer
simulations.
The system would allow real testing by first instrumenting
existing buildings and the surrounding soil with sensors, and
measuring the effects of seismic activity on the building.
“You want to do (real) experiments to validate your
(artificial) models. We need some (real) data to develop those
models,” Whang said.
“Now, I can take (the system) and instrument Boelter and
Royce,” he added.
This type of testing would provide immediate and valuable
information on the strengths and weaknesses on the way buildings
are designed and constructed.
The NEES project allows researchers to broadcast this type of
seismic information to each other in real time, thereby overcoming
geographical separation.
This is integral to the program because special monitoring
equipment is housed separately at each of the partnering sites.
“We can’t control the destructive forces of
nature,” said Priscilla Nelson, the division director
for civil and mechanical engineering for NSF. “But this
equipment can help us design and construct buildings, bridges and
other structures that can better withstand those forces.”