Masahiro Kurata

Dense networks of low-cost wireless sensors have the potential to facilitate prolific data collection in large and complex infrastructure at costs lower than those historically associated with tethered counterparts. While wireless telemetry has been previously proposed for structural monitoring, comparatively less research has focused on the creation of a complete and scalable data management system that manages the storage and interrogation of wireless sensor data. This paper reports on the dev

The goal of this study is to design and evaluate simple and rapid seismic retrofit devices for relatively small rehabilitation projects for steel structures. These designs are consistent with the tenets of sustainable design and will result in a more resilient building stock as well as minimizing environmental and economical effects and social consequences during the rehabilitation project. To achieve these goals, a unique approach to designing supplemental systems by using tension-only elements

This research presents a methodology for damage detection along with a sensing system for monitoring seismic damage in steel buildings. The system extracts the location and extent of local damage, such as fracture at a beam–column connection, from changes in the bending moment distribution in a steel moment-resisting frame. We developed a dynamic strain-based sensing system utilizing piezoelectric film sensors and wireless sensing techniques to estimate the bending moments resisted by individual

Abstract Past earthquakes highlighted the vulnerability of the suspended ceiling, especially in earthquake‐prone countries like Japan; the post‐earthquake reconnaissance showed that damage to ceiling systems led to immeasurable economic loss and disturbance of the timely rescue of casualty. The existing studies have mostly focused on the seismic performance of regular square and leveled ceilings, whereas the inevitable requirements to accommodate air ducts, nonstructural piping, and electrical e

The plastic deformation behaviour of embedded-type column bases was experimentally examined. The primary parameters were width-to-thickness ratio and axial load ratio, and results showed significant strength deterioration induced by local buckling that was largely affected by the test parameters. Analytical models of the test specimens were developed. The developed models were applied for nonlinear dynamic analysis of low- and mid-rise steel moment frames. The analysis results showed the importa

A dense network of sensors installed in a bridge can continuously generate response data from which the health and condition of the bridge can be analyzed. This approach to structural health monitoring the efforts associated with periodic bridge inspections and can provide timely insight to regions of the bridge suspected of degradation or damage. Nevertheless, the deployment of fine sensor grids on large-scale structures is not feasible using wired monitoring systems because of the rapidly incr

Summary Studies on recent earthquakes highlighted that buildings with minimal structural damage still suffer from extensive damage and failure of nonstructural components. The dropping and damage of suspended ceiling systems, which typically consist of acceleration‐sensitive nonstructural elements, resulted in lengthy functional disruptions and extended recovery time. This article experimentally and analytically examined the vibration properties of an integrated ceiling system considering the in

Quantitative reports on postearthquake infrastructure condition are valuable to engineers, building owners, local government entities, and the public. Despite their utility, sensor-based protocols have not been widely embraced, primarily due to a lack of proper demonstrations. This paper introduces a methodology for determining the postearthquake strength of a steel moment-resisting frame with multiple beam-column fractures based on local monitoring data. The damage index (DI), an existing metri

The use of aluminum alloys in the design of naval structures offers the benefit of light-weight ships that can travel at high-speed. However, the use of aluminum poses a number of challenges for the naval engineering community including higher incidence of fatigue-related cracks. Early detection of fatigue induced cracks enhances maintenance of the ships and is critical for preventing the catastrophic failure of the hull. Furthermore, monitoring the integrity of the aluminum hull can provide val

Summary The concept of using a hysteretic damper as a condition assessment device that functions immediately after a damaging earthquake is realized by making use of the residual out‐of‐plane deformation of links that are arranged in slit shear walls. According to the proposed inspection procedure, the maximum drift ratio experienced by the slit wall is estimated based on the number of torsionally deformed links whose dimensions are determined so that the links would exhibit notable torsional de

The cyclic loading tests on steel tube columns were conducted to examine the deformation capacity of fixed-type column bases, represented as embedded-type. A constant axial load was applied vertically and cyclic horizontal load was applied to failure. The primary parameters applied in the tests were the width-to-thickness ratio and axial load ratio of the columns. Six columns with 2/3 in scale were tested. Loading was continued until the specimen completely lost their axial load supporting capac

Abstract This paper presents seismic damage to continuous ceiling systems and the impact of damage on functionality in the hospital specimen tested at the E‐Defense shaking table. The specimen had four ceiling systems with different peripheral constraint conditions, coverage areas, suspended lengths, and ceiling panel materials. The test results demonstrate that the continuous ceiling system is less susceptible to collapse than the lay‐in ceiling system. However, medical facilities require maint