Model building is earthquake tested
A U.S. earthquake engineer has successfully performed the first test of wireless sensors in the simulated structural control of a model building. Washington University Professor Shirley Dyke combined the wireless sensors with special controls called magnetorheological dampers to limit damage from a simulated earthquake load.
Dyke — the first person to test wireles sensors in simulated structural control experiments — envisions a wireless future for structural control technology. The wireless sensors, about a square inch in size, are attached to the sides of buildings to monitor the force of sway when shaking, similar to an earthquake, occurs. The data are then transmitted to a computer that translates the random units read by the sensors and sends a message to magnetorheological dampers that are within the building`s structure to dampen the effect of the swaying.
Dyke and colleagues recently published their results in the Proceedings of the 4th China-Japan-U.S. Symposium on Structural Control and Monitoring.
More info here.
