Similar articles

Abstract: On March 11, 2011, eastern Japan was shaken by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of tohoku Earthquake (the Great East Japan Earthquake). Almost 30 000 people have been killed or are missing as a result of that earthquake and the subsequent monster tsunami, as of April 11, 2011. This paper reports several aspects of this devastating earthquake. It has been reported that long-period ground motions, which had been predicted by many researchers, occurred in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. The response characteristics of high-rise buildings to the recorded long-period ground motions are discussed from the viewpoint of resonance and critical excitation. It is shown that high-hardness rubber dampers are very effective in the reduction of vibration duration in addition to the reduction in vibration amplitude.

[1]Architectural Institute of Japan, 2011. Preliminary Reconnaissance Report on the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake, April 6 (in Japanese).

[2]Ariga, T., Kanno, Y., Takewaki, I., 2006. Resonant behavior of base-isolated high-rise buildings under long-period ground motions. The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings, 15(3):325-338.

[3]Asahi Newspaper, 2011a. April 10 (in Japanese).

[4]Asahi Newspaper, 2011b. Evening Edition, April 19 (in Japanese).

[5]Drenick, R.F., 1970. Model-free design of aseismic structures. Journal of the Engineering Mechanics Division, ASCE, 96(4):483-493.

[6]Geller, R.J., Jackson, D.D., Kagan, Y.Y., Mulargia, F., 1997. Earthquakes cannot be predicted. Science, 275(5306):1616.

[7]Heaton, T.H., Hall, J.F., Wald, D.J., Halling, M.W., 1995. Response of high-rise and base-isolated buildings to a hypothetical M_w 7.0 blind thrust earthquake. Science, 267(5195):206-211.

[8]Housner, G.W., Jennings, P.C., 1975. The Capacity of Extreme Earthquake Motions to Damage Structures. Structural and Geotechnical Mechanics, Hall, W.J. (Ed.), Prentice-Hall Englewood Cliff, NJ, p.102-116.

[9]Kamae, K., Kawabe, H., Irikura, K., 2004. Strong Ground Motion Prediction for Huge Subduction Earthquakes Using a Characterized Source Model and Several Simulation Techniques. Proceedings of the 13th WCEE, Vancouver, Canada, Paper No. 655.

[10]MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism), 2010. Tentative Guideline for Retrofit and Design of Super High-Rise Buildings under Long-Period Ground Motion. Available from http://www.mlit.go.jp/report/press/house05_hh_000218.html (in Japanese) [Accessed on Jan. 11, 2011].

[11]NIED (National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention), 2011a. 2011 Off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake, Strong Ground Motion, Emergency Meeting of Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion. Available from http://www.k-net.bosai.go.jp/k-net/topics/TohokuTaiheiyo_20110311/nied_kyoshin2e.pdf [Accessed on Apr. 20, 2011].

[12]NIED (National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention), 2011b. Recent Epicenter Map. Available from http://www.hinet.bosai.go.jp/hypomap/ (in Japanese) [Accessed on Apr. 20, 2011].

[13]NIED (National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention), 2011c. 2011 Off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake, Strong Ground Motion. Available from http://www.kyoshin.bosai.go.jp/kyoshin/topics/html20110311144626/main_20110311144626.html (in Japanese) [Accessed on Apr. 20, 2011].

[14]Stein, R.S., 2003. Earthquake conversations. Scientific American, 288(1):72-79.

[15]Takewaki, I., 2004. Bound of earthquake input energy. Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, 130(9):1289-1297.

[16]Takewaki, I., 2006. Critical Excitation Methods in Earthquake Engineering. Elsevier.

[17]Takewaki, I., 2008. Critical Excitation Methods for Important Structures. EURODYN, Southampton, England.

[18]Tani, T., Yoshitomi, S., Tsuji, M., Takewaki, I., 2009. High-performance control of wind-induced vibration of high-rise building via innovative high-hardness rubber damper. The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings, 18(7):705-728.