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Application of Earthquake Early Warning System to Seismic-Isolated

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Article  in  Journal of Disaster Research · August 2009

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Okada, K., Nakamura, Y., and Saruta, M.
Paper:
Application of Earthquake Early Warning System to
Seismic-Isolated Buildings
Keiichi Okada, Yutaka Nakamura, and Masaaki Saruta
Institute of Technology, Shimizu Corporation, Tokyo, Japan
3-4-17 Etchujima, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-8530, Japan
E-mail: okka@shimz.co.jp
[Received April 7, 2009; accepted June 22, 2009]
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has devel-
oped an earthquake early warning system to release
information in the event of earthquake, and this sys-
tem has been in practical use since 2007. Mean-
while, structural health monitoring technology has
been attracting attention from those who want to save
time in determining the structural health of buildings
and who want to detect earthquake resistance perfor-
mance and damage sustained. Practical applications
of this technology have also begun. Seismic-isolated
buildings have been developed to protect building
structures and keep properties safe from earthquakes
and this is significantly effective means to protect
properties as a preventative measure against earth-
quake. The technology is based on the past experi-
ences of the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995. Seis-
mic disaster prevention technologies have been fur-
ther developed since then against the severe, large
scale damage to buildings and loss of human life which
could be incurred by earthquakes. This should be
a system as safe and secure hardware and software
as a system in building structures, in addition to the
current situation and earthquake disaster prevention
of structure itself. This paper describes the earth-
quake early warning system used to tackle the threat
of earthquakes. And the paper shows two applica-
tions of the earthquake early warning system and
structural health monitoring technologies to seismic-
isolated buildings.
Keywords: seismic disaster prevention, emergency
earthquake alert, structural health monitoring, isolated
structures, sustainability
1. Introduction
Incidence of earthquakes in Japan is higher than that
in many other countries. This fact has made Japan learn
from its past experiences in the advancement of seismic
technologies for buildings. The Great Hanshin Earth-
quake in 1995, as our memory is still fresh, was a tragedy
with huge losses of human life and great devastation of
buildings. The earthquake reminded us of the threats of
natural disasters on Japan’s seismic technologies. It was
242
followed by the rapid advancement of a network infras-
tructure of seismometers to detect earthquakes and issue
warnings. Seismic structure designs were also recon-
sidered and advanced at a rapid pace. It may be said
that buildings have become safer than in the past due to
the progress of technologies of seismic response control
systems and seismic-isolated structures, which have im-
proved the earthquake resistance performance of build-
ings.
Although the improvement in the seismic performance
of buildings has helped to avert personal losses or the col-
lapse of buildings, it does not guarantee our security until
we actually experience another earthquake. Considering
this, the Earthquake Early Warning System (EEW) was
developed for the Meteorological Agency to provide real
time earthquake warning information in practical opera-
tion in 2007.
Structural health monitoring (SHM) technologies to de-
tect the seismic performance of or damage to building
structures and to immediately identify the current state
of structural health of buildings after earthquakes have
also been gathering attention. SHM has been also im-
plemented for practical use. This may be described as
software technology to mitigate earthquake-related dis-
asters through the use of sensors. Meanwhile, in terms
of hardware technologies, seismic-isolated structures are
available for higher safety against earthquake-related dis-
asters.
Even though structures may be highly seismic resis-
tant in design, users of the buildings and facilities could
fall victim to secondary disasters. Therefore, early earth-
quake warning systems should be considered in conjunc-
tion with automatic control systems that sound alarms to
people in the buildings. For instance, the systems should
immediately deactivate facilities, such as elevators, in a
safe manner if an early warning is issued. If earthquake
aftershocks stop, it would be necessary not only to con-
firm that the structure is in a safe state but also to ob-
tain information on its status immediately after the earth-
quake. This will be required to determine how safe it is
for people in the buildings to take action. However, it is
impossible for non-experts to see if a structure is safe or
not, so systems that perform structural health monitoring
may be a necessary source of information for experts to
determine the status of buildings.
Journal of Disaster Research Vol.4 No.4, 2009

Fig. 1. Emergency earthquake alert system.
A combination of earthquake early alarm system and
structural health monitoring using sensors to monitor the
status before and after an earthquake was recently ap-
plied to obtain earthquake information for the purpose of
further mitigating the safety risks of earthquake-led dis-
asters. This paper presents case studies of two build-
ings equipped by the authors with earthquake early alarm
systems and with structural health monitoring of their
seismic-isolated structures as early earthquake alarm and
disaster prevention systems.
2. Earthquake Early Warning Systems
2.1. Emergency Earthquake Alert
The emergency earthquake alert is real time seismic in-
formation provided mainly by the JMA. The system ana-
lyzes seismic waves from the initial movement (P waves)
recorded by the seismometer at an observation point near
the seismic center of an earthquake. It immediately esti-
mates the seismic scale (magnitude) and the location of
the seismic center. It further determines, to the degree
possible, the time it will take the main movement (S wave)
to reach various locations as well as the seismic inten-
sity of the earthquake based on the information available
for early warning. The information is then transmitted
through the communication network of news providers to
issue alarms at various locations (buildings on site) in ad-
vance. The alarms can be used for emergency public ad-
dress, the deactivation of elevators, and the safe deactiva-
tion of other facilities and equipment. Fig. 1 is a concep-
tual drawing of the emergency earthquake alert system.
Reliability is key if information is to be distributed and
used to control equipment. Therefore, the system is cur-
rently being used to achieve high reliability of equipment
in emergency operations where production equipment is
deactivated when seismometers installed at points receive
earthquake alerts after the detection of earthquake shock-
Journal of Disaster Research Vol.4 No.4, 2009
Application of Earthquake Early Warning System to
Seismic-Isolated Buildings
waves at other local points. There is an issue which
remains unsolved in emergency earthquake alerts. Ap-
proximately 6 seconds are required for the system to de-
tect an earthquake, process its information, and distribute
it. The earthquake information might be too late, as the
main shock may have already reached the building being
warned if the seismic center is close by.
Thus, it would actually be necessary to avoid such
problems by achieving a redundancy in the transmission
of information by using both the system and seismome-
ter installed in the building. The seismometer system
used for the emergency earthquake early warning sys-
tem presumes earthquakes of individual scales at differ-
ent locations so that the device can be used as a single
unit. There is such a device: the Nowcast seismome-
ter. This device estimates the scale of an earthquake in
real time if it has been installed a locally as a seismome-
ter. The data obtained from the device can be combined
with the emergency earthquake alert to improve the accu-
racy of information on estimated earthquake scale. This
is a credible system for emergency response equipment
in buildings. The primary advantage of this system is to
secure the safety of human life. It is also expected to
mitigate fires, which are secondary disasters after large
earthquakes. However, although the system employs ad-
vanced information technologies, issues remain unsolved
as to whether the effectiveness of the system may offset
the costs to design the system, losses attributed to false
information, or excessive reactions by the users. It is a
matter of how users acknowledge the information.
2.2. Earthquake-Sensing Devices
The earthquake-sensing device is a sensor that detects
vibrations and deactivates equipment. There are various
kinds of the devices available, both mechanical and elec-
trical, which set the threshold value of a vibration for the
generation of the control signal. In order to minimize the
occurrence of secondary disasters after earthquakes, the
243
Okada, K., Nakamura, Y., and Saruta, M.

Fig. 2. Earthquake emergency operation for elevators by the earthquake-sensing device.

control signals can effect emergency stops or set off con- 2.3. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM)
trolling alarms. Earthquake-sensing devices are currently
Structural health monitoring (SHM) is a technology for
used to mitigate disasters caused by earthquakes, as they
examining the health of structures. It allows for quick
can provide emergency reaction to secure hazardous ma-
health or damage monitoring following disasters such as
terials, such as gas and oil in tanks, provide emergency
earthquake or typhoons, as the sensors are installed in
warning in regions or local complexes, and provide safety
structures for the monitoring of their status. Fig. 3 shows
management of structures and facilities. This type of sen-
an example of the system installed in a building. SHM is
sor includes one to detect P or S seismic waves. It is used
to determine the current status of system health, which is
for the central management systems of elevators in build-
useful information for “users,” e.g., owners or users of the
ings to prevent people from being trapped in them and to
buildings, to know, while conventional earthquake moni-
mitigate earthquake damage to the equipment.
toring is mainly for structural engineers or researchers to
In recent years, a long-lasting earthquake has been dis-
examine the performance of buildings or to analyze their
covered. It lasts a very long time with a period of a few to
status.
tens of seconds of small vibration and small acceleration.
For instance, SHM is used to determine whether af-
High-rise buildings may be affected by the earthquake’s
fected buildings or factories can be used “as is” immedi-
resonance after continuing to vibrate for more than a few
ately after a disaster, or to determine how serious the dam-
minutes. Therefore, a highly sensitive sensor which de-
age is and how much material or how many days would be
tects minor vibrations that are hard for conventional earth-
necessary for restoration after the occurrence of an earth-
quake sensing devices to detect has been used for elevator
quake. Accordingly, SHM is not to mitigate the damages
management systems as long-lasting earthquake-sensing
incurred by earthquake itself, but to prevent secondary
devices. This sensor employs a servo type accelerometer.
disasters and to expedite the restoration or resumption of
The earthquake sensing device was developed to deac-
factory operations after an earthquake.
tivate objects, so it needs to be reset to its normal state
SHM is also recognized as an effective technology for
after earthquakes, as long as safety has been confirmed.
Business Continuity Planning, as it contributes to the re-
Remote restoration is available for some products. This
duction of the risk of financial loss. The system actu-
type of device is connected to monitoring equipment that
ally monitors the current health of buildings on site as
monitors its status. Fig. 2 shows the use of the earthquake
installed accelerometers that detect earthquake vibrations,
sensing device for the elevator management systems. Sys-
as shown in Fig. 4. They detect deformation or variance
tems that would require such earthquake-sensing devices
between layers of structural members, as this shows the
to stop their operation should be quite reliable. Facilities
location and status of damage. These sensors, which pre-
at significant risk of being affected by malfunctions of the
cisely indicate the current status of buildings, should help
systems, such as production facilities, should have a mul-
the owners or users to avert risks from structural deterio-
tiplex system to suspend operations of the systems.
ration or damages that could rapidly progress and affect

244 Journal of Disaster Research Vol.4 No.4, 2009


Fig. 3. Structural health monitoring.
Fig. 4. Peak hold sensor and wireless measurement device.
structural performances in case of emergency.
In addition, SHM shows how earthquake-resistance
performance is achieved for target buildings by directly
monitoring their status after an earthquake. This will as-
sist in the development of a precise assessment of the
structural performance of the buildings. In particular, if
a large-scale earthquake occurs and status information is
obtained for a building, the new data, which might be dif-
ferent from that of past experiences, may be used as a
reference for future seismic design.
2.4. Advancement of Systems
Emergency warning systems against large-scale earth-
quakes should improve disaster prevention measures us-
ing emergency earthquake alerts, earthquake-sensing de-
Journal of Disaster Research Vol.4 No.4, 2009
Application of Earthquake Early Warning System to
Seismic-Isolated Buildings
Fig. 5. Prediction of earthquake and control system.
vices, and SHM. It is a fact that seismic resistance tech-
nologies for structures have improved, and human life is
now well protected against the risk of building collapse.
Furthermore, seismic-isolated structures, such as key fa-
cilities expected to be disaster evacuation centers or pro-
duction facilities that could lead to significant financial
loss in case of disaster, should be free from the loss of
building functions in the event of large-scale earthquake.
However, as a disaster warning system works for the
security of human life as well as to mitigate disasters, it
is necessary to develop a system to monitor the current
status of buildings using the aforementioned sensors. The
system should be systemized to take comprehensive dis-
aster prevention measures. Fig. 5 shows how the systems
can be used immediately before and after an earthquake.
It is desirable that the system have a sequence, so that it
does not issue warnings too long before the occurrence
of earthquakes, so that it manages equipment and devices
in a safe state while shaking, and so that it confirms the
building’s safety for restoration.
3. Application to Actual Buildings
3.1. A Seismic-Isolated Building of Long-Span
Structure
The 6-story main building of the Shimizu Institute of
Technology, located in Koto-ku, Tokyo, is a long-span
seismic isolated building. The building has a plan dimen-
sion of 20 m × 80 m and employs a large-scale “trussed
cage” structure. The upper structure is supported on six
lead rubber bearings mounted on independent columns.
The building includes accelerometers (8 locations), a dis-
placement meter (1 location), and a thermometer (1 loca-
tion). A SHM system has been installed to monitor the
245
Okada, K., Nakamura, Y., and Saruta, M.

Fig. 6. Building appearance and sensor arrangements.

microtremors at midnight and noon and to monitor earth-

quake responses. Fig. 6 shows the outside of the building
and the SHM system layout. The system employs a web-
based system, and the data is obtained through the Internet
immediately. The IT-based health monitoring system was
put into operation after the completion of the building in
November 2003.
This building has an emergency public address system
for earthquake early warning, and its elevator operation
is deactivated in case of emergency. Once an emergency
alert from the Meteorological Agency is received by the
system through a dedicated line, it estimates the seismic
intensity at the location of the building. If the seismic
intensity is estimated to be magnitude 4 or above, an
emergency public announcement is issued and an alarm
is sounded.
The SHM system is used to detect and monitor earth-
quakes that occur and to determine if and when eleva- Fig. 7. Emergency elevator control in case of earthquake.
tor deactivation signals should be cancelled. The earth-
quake warning system in this building deactivates eleva-
tors automatically and restores the elevator functions ac- of the isolator. The results indicate that the earthquake re-
cording to the information from sensors of the SHM sys- sponse of the building decreased as the seismic intensity
tem. The elevator control system shown in Fig. 7 utilizes increased. The natural frequency became lower as well.
the earthquake early warning system, P-wave sensors, and The tendency became remarkable from the measured seis-
the SHM system. mic intensity 3.0 (seismic intensity scale 3), which means
Earthquake records (118 earthquakes) are shown in that base-isolated buildings which depend on a dynamic
Fig. 8. The vertical axis indicates the maximum accel- range serve to resist the acceleration of earthquakes.
eration (vector) of the first and sixth floors. The earth- Figure 10 shows the records of the waves observed
quake response at the first floor decreases as the response in the earthquake that occurred in the northwest part of
at the sixth floor increases. Fig. 9 (a)-(c) shows the rela- Chiba Prefecture on July 23, 2005. The seismic intensity
tions of the seismic intensities at the first floor, as well as in Koto-ku, Tokyo was 5. It shows that the vibration of
the seismic intensity, the maximum acceleration response the building observed was only half of that observed on
ratio, natural frequency, and the maximum deformation the ground. The deformation of the rubber bearing de-

246 Journal of Disaster Research Vol.4 No.4, 2009


Fig. 8. Time elapsed data of the peak acceleration response
observed in the building.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 9. Relations of various earthquake response character-
istics for the seismic intensity at the first floor of building.
vice was only about 25 mm at the maximum. Although
this earthquake was of medium scale, it made a signif-
icant impact on the metropolitan area: the operation of
traffic systems was suspended and a number of elevators
were locked up. The systems could not be restored for a
long time.
Microtremor measurement is conducted twice a day (at
noon and midnight) to evaluate the dynamic characteris-
tics of the building. Fig. 11 shows the changes in the natu-
Journal of Disaster Research Vol.4 No.4, 2009
Application of Earthquake Early Warning System to
Seismic-Isolated Buildings
Fig. 10. Seismic waves of X direction (Earthquake: North-
west part of Chiba prefecture on July 23, 2005).
Fig. 11. Change of the building vibration characteristics by
a long-term monitoring.
ral frequencies over the past three years and the changes in
temperature. The measurement revealed no major change
in status to date, except the cyclic change of the frequen-
cies attributed to the change in the rigidity of the rub-
ber bearings depending on the temperature. This data is
worth keeping for the examination of the degree of dam-
age through comparison of the microtremor characteris-
tics of the building before and after a large earthquake.
3.2. A Core-Suspended Isolated Building
A core-suspended isolated building, a new type of
seismic-isolated structure, was built in the Shimizu Insti-
tute of Technology complex in Koto-ku, Tokyo in 2007.
247
Okada, K., Nakamura, Y., and Saruta, M.

Fig. 12. Building appearance. Fig. 13. Arrangement of SHM sensors.

The building has four stories above the ground and is 14m
in height. Fig. 12 shows the appearance of the build-
ing. Core suspended isolation (CSI) is a special design, as
the floors are suspended by steel rods from the top using
the two-layered rubber bearings installed at the top of the
core shaft of the RC structure. Fluid dampers are placed
between the core and the second and top level floors to
provide additional damping to control the motion of the
suspended structure. The fluid dampers employ a safety
lock mechanism to control the vibration of the building.
The safety lock normally operates to hold the suspended
structure against the force of the wind and is automatically
released in the event of earthquake.
The SHM system is provided to monitor the structural
performance of the building. Fig. 13 shows the sensor ar-
rangements in the building (7 accelerometers, 2 displace- Fig. 14. Monitoring and the control system.
ment meters, 1 wind anemometer).
The SHM system of the building detects and records on July 24, 2008. The seismic intensity in Tokyo, about
seismic vibrations while the lock mechanism is released 500 km away from the seismic center, was 3. The ob-
only when the observed record exceeds the threshold served records indicate that the dampers were unlocked
value. As the system keeps monitoring seismic vibration, about 20 sec after the earthquake struck. The accelera-
the damper lock is released to restore the normal state tion of the upper floors was about double that of the first
once the building is settled with no vibration. Fig. 14 is floor. The observed records demonstrate that the informa-
a block diagram of the SHM system of the building. The tion was transmitted from the SHM system to the infor-
threshold value for the release of the dampers is the ac- mation board installed in the building.
celeration RMS value for one second at the ground level,
8 gal in the horizontal direction, or 10 gal in the vertical
direction. Furthermore, the system is equipped with an 4. Concluding Remarks
anemometer as a sensor for monitoring the status of the
wind. The damper locks will be also be released when the An earthquake early warning system, a means to re-
wind velocity exceeds 20 m/s. duce various risks, has become available for practical use.
Figure 15 shows the observed earthquake record when Structural health monitoring is also useful for quick de-
the fluid dampers were released. The magnitude 6.8 earth- cision making and response, as the system provides in-
quake occurred off the north shore of Iwate prefecture formation to identify the risk following earthquakes and

248 Journal of Disaster Research Vol.4 No.4, 2009


Fig. 15. Observed seismic waves of X direction (Earth-
quake: North offshore of Iwate prefecture on July 24, 2008).
to prevent secondary disasters. It is hoped that these sys-
tems will be used and become widespread as an earth-
quake warning system in the future. The development of
IT should contribute to an increase in the speed at which
decisions are made as well as higher accuracy of informa-
tion in the future.
This paper introduces a sensor-based system for two
seismic-isolated structures designed for earthquake warn-
ing. The technologies used for these systems are based on
a basic method of using sensors for monitoring. The sys-
tem was further developed by combining advanced sys-
tems to determine how to use the earthquake informa-
tion. Although the system is still under development, it is
inevitable that preventative measures against large-scale
earthquakes be developed. Further studies on the system
should be carried out for the purpose of mitigating earth-
quake disasters and assuring the safety and security of the
people.
Journal of Disaster Research Vol.4 No.4, 2009
Application of Earthquake Early Warning System to
Seismic-Isolated Buildings
References:
[1] K. Okada, M. Shiraishi, H. Iwaki, and K. Shiba, “Internet-based
Remote Controlled Structure Monitoring System,” Proc. of 1st Int.
Conf. on Structural Health Monitoring and Intelligent Infrastruc-
ture, Tokyo, Japan, pp. 1249-1257, Nov. 13-15, 2003.
[2] M. Shiraishi and K. Okada, “Internet-Based Structural Health Mon-
itoring System,” First Int. Workshop on Networked Sensing Sys-
tems (INSS), June 2004.
[3] K. Okada, M. Shiraishi, K. Takeuchi, and Y. Yamamoto, “Struc-
tural Health Monitoring System using Displacement Memorizing
Sensor (Part1,2),” Summaries of Proceeding of Annual Meeting of
AIJ, Aug. 2005 (in Japanese).
[4] K. Okada and M. Shiraishi, “Structural Health Monitoring Sys-
tem using Displacement Memorizing Sensor (Part 3: Verification
of the System Dynamic Characteristics),” Summaries of Proceed-
ing of Annual Meeting of AIJ, Sep. 2006 (in Japanese).
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Earthquake Structural Health Monitoring,” The 23rd Sensor Sym-
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Isolated Building using Health Monitoring System,” Summaries of
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Building by Long Term Monitoring Data,” Summaries of Proc. of
Annual Meeting of AIJ, Sep. 2008 (in Japanese).
[10] Y. Nakamura, M. Saruta, T. Nakanishi et. al., “Development of the
core-suspended isolation system,” The 14th World Conf. on Earth-
quake Engineering, Beijing, China, Oct. 2008.
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Span Structure Overhanging Urban Infrastructure,” Proc. of the CT-
BUH 2004 Seoul Conf., Volume Three, Seoul, Korea, Oct. 2004.
Name:
Keiichi Okada
Affiliation:
Senior Research Engineer, Institute of Technol-
ogy, Shimizu Corporation
Address:
3-4-17 Etchujima, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-8530, Japan
Brief Career:
1983 Joined Shimizu Corporation
1983- Institute of Technology, Shimizu Corporation
Selected Publications:
• “Internet-based Remote Controlled Structure Monitoring System,” Proc.
of 1st Int. Conf. on Structural Health Monitoring and Intelligent
Infrastructure, Tokyo, Japan, pp. 1249-1257, Nov. 13-15, 2003.
Academic Societies & Scientific Organizations:
• Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ)
• Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE)
249
Okada, K., Nakamura, Y., and Saruta, M.

Name:
Yutaka Nakamura

Affiliation:
Dr. Eng., Chief Research Engineer, Institute of
Technology, Shimizu Corporation

Address:
3-4-17 Etchujima, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-8530, Japan
Brief Career:
1984 Joined Shimizu Corporation
1990-92 University of California, Berkeley (M.S.)
1992- Institute of Technology, Shimizu Corporation
1996 Dr. Eng. from Kyoto University
Selected Publications:
• “Stiffness Design of 3-D Shear Buildings for Specified Seismic Drifts,”
Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, Vol.119, pp. 50-68, Jan. 1993.
• “Stiffness Design for Specified Nonexceedance Probability of Seismic
Response,” Earthquake Spectra, Vol.14, pp. 165-188, Feb. 1998.
• “Inverse reliability-based design of shear buildings supported by springs
with stochastic stiffness,” Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics, Vol.15,
pp. 295-303, July 2000.
Academic Societies & Scientific Organizations:
• Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ)

Name:
Masaaki Saruta

Affiliation:
Dr. Eng., Chief Research Engineer, Institute of
Technology, Shimizu Corporation

Address:
3-4-17 Etchujima, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-8530, Japan
Brief Career:
1982 Joined Shimizu Corporation
1982- Institute of Technology, Shimizu Corporation
1999 Dr. Eng. from Tohoku University
Selected Publications:
• “Stiffness Design of 3-D Shear Buildings for Specified Seismic Drifts,”
Trans. of the 10th Internationl Conf. on SMiRT, Vol.K2, pp. 631-636,
1989.
• “PDesign-and Ultimate-level earthquake tests of a 1//2.5-scale
base-isolated reinforced concrete building,” ATC-17-1, pp. 281-292, 1993.
Academic Societies & Scientific Organizations:
• Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ)

250 Journal of Disaster Research Vol.4 No.4, 2009

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