Japan to build world's most advanced earthquake simulator

[From USA TODAY, 07/15/97]

TOKYO - Japan plans to build the world's most advanced earthquake simulation device in hopes of learning how to reduce damage from the real thing.

The machine would be powerful enough to closely replicate the effects of a magnitude-7 earthquake like the one that devastated the city of Kobe in 1995, said Haruyuki Iwabuchi, director for disaster prevention research at the Science and Technology Agency.

The Kobe earthquake, which killed more than 6,000 people, caused widespread damage and shattered Japan's confidence that its latest building techniques produced structures strong enough to withstand major quakes.

The testing facility would be the only one in the world powerful enough to reduce a building to rubble, enabling scientists to observe earthquake conditions, Iwabuchi said Monday.

Japan already has what is now the world's largest earthquake simulation facility, but it is only capable of shaking test models up and down and left and right.

The new facility would also shake the structures back and forth, as a real earthquake does. It also would be able to handle models weighing up to 1,200 tons, the size of a four-story building, slightly more than the 1,000-ton capacity at the current facility.

There are some 20 other seismic simulation devices in the world capable of reproducing three-dimensional motion, Iwabuchi said, but because of the large amount of power required they can only handle models up to about 300 tons.

The government agency hopes to begin building the testing facility next year near the city of Miki, 20 miles northwest of Kobe in western Japan. It would be ready for its first test by 2004.

The estimated cost of $3 billion has not yet been approved by parliament, but the initial research into the machines for powering the device has been done, Iwabuchi said.

The proposed simulator would shake a 50-by-65-foot platform using mechanical arms powered by pressurized oil, somewhat like the systems that run power steering in cars.

Scientists would take photos and videotape and make various other readings as the models crumble to study how complex shaking motions destroy buildings.

It will take about two years to prepare each life-size test model for the next experiment. In addition to office-type buildings, the agency also hopes to study the effects of earthquake motion on highway supports, homes and other structures like tanks for holding liquefied gas.