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By Emily Leung

Daily Bruin Contributor

eleung@media.ucla.edu

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.”