US-Japan International Technology Exchange on Shake Table Hybrid

0120634 Bruneau This award supports a six-month collaborative research project between Professor Michael Bruneau of SUNY, Buffalo, Professor Akira Wada of the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Masayoshi Nakashima at Kyoto University in Japan. The researchers will be undertaking a study of hybrid testing at large scale high performance shake table earthquake simulation facilities. The U.S. PI's are developing the world's most versatile next generation earthquake engineering research facility designed to provide testing capabilities that will revolutionize the fundamental understanding of how large structures behave during earthquakes and will feature advanced shake tables. It is a part of the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). The NEES collaboratory will include approximately 20 equipment sites (shake tables, centrifuges, tsunami wave basin, large-scale laboratory experimentation systems, and field experimentation and monitoring installations) networked together through the high performance Internet. The scientific objective is to add a new international frontier to the NEES project in order to 1) foster international collaboration aimed at exchange of experiences by the Japanese counterparts; 2) identify common challenges facing the developers of such facilities, inclusion of such experiences in the actual design development/integration of the proposed facility at Buffalo and other NEES locations; and 3) cultivate collaborative partnerships for future sharing of facilities to extend testing capabilities to further the common goals. The project brings together the efforts of laboratories that have complementary expertise and research capabilities. Through the exchange of ideas and technology, this project will broaden our knowledge base and promote international understanding and cooperation. The researchers plan to publish the results of their collaborations on the NEES web site.