CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Earthquakes are natural phenomena that occur when massive portions of

the earth move. During an earthquake, infrastructures collapse due to the intense

stress applied by the movement of the soil below the base of the building. An

infrastructure that collapses due to an earthquake whilst occupied by people is

already a disaster by itself.

As what happened in Kobe in 1995, it was struck by a 6.9-magnitude

earthquake that ruined 150,000 properties, leaving 300,000 homeless and 6,300

people lost their lives (Kohlstedt, 2017).

Also, earthquakes during this century would be the 7.0-magnitude

earthquake in Haiti that killed an estimated 316,000 people in 2010, claiming

more lives as a percentage of a country’s population than any recorded disaster.

On the 10th of February 2017, a strong earthquake of magnitude 6.7

shook the island of Mindanao. The epicenter is located 16 km offshore northwest

of Surigao City, Surigao Strait at a depth of 10 km. 300 houses in Surigao del

Norte were damaged following the earthquake and a total of seven bridges

collapsed, isolating the provincial city of San Francisco. There were at least

eleven towns affected and all were experiencing power outages (Phivolcs, 2017).

Due to the lack of real earthquake simulation it resulted into buildings

insufficiently braced for lateral loads or the shaking side to side. The researchers

need to address these problems since the number of developing infrastructures

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are increasing rapidly and more people could perish if an earthquake would

occur.

To create a design which may be strong enough to withstand an

earthquake, we should first know how an earthquake affects the structure of an

infrastructure. One way of understanding how an infrastructure behaves under

stress from an earthquake would be to create an earthquake simulation. By doing

so, it will help us to understand infrastructure and earthquake behavior, which will

act as a catalyst for engineers to create new designs for infrastructures to

withstand earthquakes.

With the number of deaths that earthquakes cause globally, nationally and

locally, the researchers came up with a study entitled “Earthquake Simulator

using Secondary Seismograph Data”, a full-scale shake table that processed the

frequency, type, and size of the ground’s motion in reference to the statistics and

data gathered on previous earthquakes. With this study, it will help engineers and

engineering students specifically, those in the Civil Engineering and Architecture

discipline to understand and to learn how infrastructures behave under an

earthquake.

Research Objectives

The main purpose of this study was to create an earthquake simulator

using secondary seismograph data that can be used in experiments or studies

related to infrastructure design. The simulator interpreted the seismograph data

into a full-scale earthquake.

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Specifically, the simulator could (a) aid civil engineering students to

conduct tests in order to determine the proper materials and designs of

infrastructures where it can stand the devastating effects of earthquakes, (b)

mimic the Shearing Waves (North to South) and Surface Waves (East to West)

at a full-scale magnitude, and (c) to simulate notable earthquakes.

Review of Related Literature

An earthquake is one of the most dangerous and destructive natural

occurrences known to man. It is the shaking of the surface of the Earth, resulting

from the sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere and creates seismic

wave. Earthquakes have caused the dramatic collapse and destruction of

freeways, bridges and other structures built according to stringent earthquake-

resistant design codes. Numerous major earthquakes had already happened in

countries located all over the world, including the Philippines; examples are the

1968 Casiguran and 1976 Moro Gulf earthquakes. The devastating effects of

earthquakes prompted the interests of the researchers to the construction of

shake tables (Sabillo, 2013).

According to the book “Earthquake Engineering Structural Dynamics”, the

earliest known hand-powered shake table was constructed in Japan at the end of

the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the developments had

moved to Stanford University with the introduction of an electric motor to produce

a more refined oscillatory motion in one direction (Severn, 2010)

The study of ’Shake Table’ (Stauffer, 1997) stated that MIT researchers

and their collaborators prepared a conceptual design for a 30-by-30-meter

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“shake table” that can subject a full-scale building or other structure of the forces

of a real earthquake. This allowed them to study the durability of a building and

improve the building’s structure and design. However, the researchers estimated

that operating the table would produce forces equivalent to those of a 4.5

magnitude earthquake in their region, which then led them to develop the half-

scale prototype shake table.

Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, Professor of the Cornell School of Civil and

Environmental Engineering recognized that his students were immersed in theory

and could benefit from a dose of practical application. An earthquake simulator

table is a very big leap towards engaging students to hands on approach of

learning. Practical learning is very essential since students would be able to

develop the skill to apply the theories into real life. This skill is somewhat lacking

in modern times. Many students can be very good with theories, but very bad at

applying it into real life situations.

Moreover, other study outlines that a shake table is an important teaching

tool, useful in presenting to aspiring architects and engineers how particular

structures respond during seismic events (Brown, 2007). “Having the ability to

simulate an earthquake gives us much better understanding of building

performance,” says Professor Shirley Dyke from Purdue University. Professor

Dyke is the driving force behind UCIST – University Consortium on Instructional

Shake Tables she helped start in 1999. The main goal of UCIST is to bring

earthquake simulators to classrooms – so that students early in their

undergraduate courses get a chance to develop understanding of structural

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dynamics and controls principles through hands-on experiments in addition to

theory. “Hands-on experiments seem to be particularly effective for teaching

basic concepts in dynamics and control,” continues Prof. Dyke, “they are

attractive supplement to the rather conventional content of several courses.”

Conceptual Framework

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Conversion of Earthquake
Seismograph Data
digital data to movement
motion simulated

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of the Earthquake Simulator

The figure above shows the conceptual framework of the Earthquake

Simulator. The inputs of the simulator were the seismograph data that was

gathered from past notable earthquakes. The data consisted of the Shear and

Surface wave seismograph – which was then converted into a code readable by

the microcontroller. The microcontroller sent signals to the motors to move in

such a way that simulated the chosen earthquake. The motion, which was the

output of the simulator, mimicked the movement of the earthquake at a full-scale.

The simulator had two linear actuators, one for each axis, which moved

independently since an earthquake can have shear and surface waves at the

same time.