Taiwan’s second experiment facility for earthquake engineering set up at NCKU - Noodls
Tainan, Taiwan, September 4, 2013 National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) and the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) have signed an agreement on August 23, allocating funds approximately NTD1500 million to build the second experiment facility owned by the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) at NCKU.
This new facility will specialize in research on near-fault seismic response and high-floor seismic performance. More specifically, the facility will pioneer the use of the world's first ever "long-stroke high-speed vibration table", which could dramatically reduce human injuries, thus enhancing mitigation benefits.
The signing ceremony was jointly hosted by NCKU President Hwung-Hweng Hwung and NARL President Liang-Gee Chen.
NCREE's second experiment facility, which is located at NCKU's Guei-Ren Campus, will include the world leading long-stroke high-speed vibration table in the field of earthquake engineering research.
This device will be used in the research on near-fault effects as well as research on the seismic performance of high-floor equipment. Recognized as the most advanced device in earthquake research, the long-stroke high-speed vibration table is seen to be significantly different from NCREE's general facilities at National Taiwan University (NTU).
"Regarding NCREE's second experiment facility, NCKU has deliberated planning for about 10 years," revealed NCKU President Hwung while expressing his delight over the successful setup of the facility at NCKU, citing it as "a dream come true".
President Hwung claimed that this setup is a wise decision due to the fact that NCKU have various departments including the Department of Civil Engineering, Department of Architecture, Department of Hydraulic and Ocean Engineering, Department of Geomatics and Department of Earth Science, which have close ties to earthquake-related problems.
NARL President Liang-Gee Chen felt proud of setting up the NCREE second facility at NCKU, which was his alma mater, especially after going through a 10-year period of twists and turns.
The second facility will focus its efforts on near-fault earthquake research in the future. NCREE Director Chen-Kuo Chang explained that near-fault effect has two main characteristics; one is creating high speed pulse of 200 cm per second which can cause serious damage to long-period structures, and the other one is large displacement.
Taiwan's city areas and science parks are close to faults, whereby three major science parks have faults going through them. Within 10 kilometers of both sides of active faults in Taiwan is estimated to affect cities and townships with more than 8.6 million people and 2.5 million buildings where 16 thousand of them have 8 or more floors. Therefore, it is undeniable that the effect of near-fault earthquake is inconceivable. With the implementation of near-fault seismic engineering method application, it is estimated that human injuries and losses can be reduced by more than 10%. Estimating based on the losses during the 921 earthquake, the number of casualty was 3160 people and the economic losses amounted to NTD360 billion during that time. Hence, enhancing prevention can reduce human injuries and losses as well as enhancing mitigation benefits. "Taiwan is situated in the Circum-Pacific seismic zone," explained Director of NCKU Department of Civil Engineering Haw-Shen Ju. "Since year 1736 until now, huge earthquakes occur every 15 to 20 years on average, where the annual number of casualty due to earthquake exceeds 70 people and economic losses amounts to more than NTD30 billion."
As earthquake cannot be predicted as easily as typhoons, many countries have allocated sizeable funds to carry out related research. Although early signs can be identified, accurate forecasts still cannot be made for earthquakes similar to that for typhoons. Under the circumstance where we have to co-exist with earthquake, finding ways to minimize losses due to earthquake is an important issue for countries situated in the Circum-Pacific seismic zone.
Since its establishment in 1997, the Taipei-based NCREE has integrated earthquake engineering research personnel from all over the country, remained committed to innovative earthquake engineering research and contributed to earthquake disaster prevention. However, this experiment facility in Taipei is no longer sufficient; therefore, the second experiment facility is set up by NCREE with the hope of improving Taiwan's research on earthquake engineering and disaster prevention measures.
Since 2002, NCKU has set up a planning team which was then actively participated by earthquake engineering researchers and experts from the four universities under the Taiwan Comprehensive University System (TCUS) after the establishment of the system. Through NCREE's open selection for its second experiment facility, the final assessment in 2012 revealed that TCUS would be given first rights to set up NCREE's second facility at NCKU's Guei-Ren Campus.
The future NCREE second experiment facility will focus its efforts on addressing technical issues on the people's livelihood construction and high economic value industries, enhancing the overall capability of research and development (R&D) of earthquake engineering, improving national earthquake disaster prevention knowledge as well as establishing earthquake engineering technology exchange.
At the same time, it is believed that the R&D capability of the southern region in earthquake engineering can be greatly enhanced due to the setup of the second experiment facility which provides experiment environment and equipment. Not only it will help balance academic development and implementation of research outcomes in the industrial world, this facility will also assist in the economic development of the southern region of Taiwan.
This new facility will specialize in research on near-fault seismic response and high-floor seismic performance. More specifically, the facility will pioneer the use of the world's first ever "long-stroke high-speed vibration table", which could dramatically reduce human injuries, thus enhancing mitigation benefits.
The signing ceremony was jointly hosted by NCKU President Hwung-Hweng Hwung and NARL President Liang-Gee Chen.
NCREE's second experiment facility, which is located at NCKU's Guei-Ren Campus, will include the world leading long-stroke high-speed vibration table in the field of earthquake engineering research.
This device will be used in the research on near-fault effects as well as research on the seismic performance of high-floor equipment. Recognized as the most advanced device in earthquake research, the long-stroke high-speed vibration table is seen to be significantly different from NCREE's general facilities at National Taiwan University (NTU).
"Regarding NCREE's second experiment facility, NCKU has deliberated planning for about 10 years," revealed NCKU President Hwung while expressing his delight over the successful setup of the facility at NCKU, citing it as "a dream come true".
President Hwung claimed that this setup is a wise decision due to the fact that NCKU have various departments including the Department of Civil Engineering, Department of Architecture, Department of Hydraulic and Ocean Engineering, Department of Geomatics and Department of Earth Science, which have close ties to earthquake-related problems.
NARL President Liang-Gee Chen felt proud of setting up the NCREE second facility at NCKU, which was his alma mater, especially after going through a 10-year period of twists and turns.
The second facility will focus its efforts on near-fault earthquake research in the future. NCREE Director Chen-Kuo Chang explained that near-fault effect has two main characteristics; one is creating high speed pulse of 200 cm per second which can cause serious damage to long-period structures, and the other one is large displacement.
Taiwan's city areas and science parks are close to faults, whereby three major science parks have faults going through them. Within 10 kilometers of both sides of active faults in Taiwan is estimated to affect cities and townships with more than 8.6 million people and 2.5 million buildings where 16 thousand of them have 8 or more floors. Therefore, it is undeniable that the effect of near-fault earthquake is inconceivable. With the implementation of near-fault seismic engineering method application, it is estimated that human injuries and losses can be reduced by more than 10%. Estimating based on the losses during the 921 earthquake, the number of casualty was 3160 people and the economic losses amounted to NTD360 billion during that time. Hence, enhancing prevention can reduce human injuries and losses as well as enhancing mitigation benefits. "Taiwan is situated in the Circum-Pacific seismic zone," explained Director of NCKU Department of Civil Engineering Haw-Shen Ju. "Since year 1736 until now, huge earthquakes occur every 15 to 20 years on average, where the annual number of casualty due to earthquake exceeds 70 people and economic losses amounts to more than NTD30 billion."
As earthquake cannot be predicted as easily as typhoons, many countries have allocated sizeable funds to carry out related research. Although early signs can be identified, accurate forecasts still cannot be made for earthquakes similar to that for typhoons. Under the circumstance where we have to co-exist with earthquake, finding ways to minimize losses due to earthquake is an important issue for countries situated in the Circum-Pacific seismic zone.
Since its establishment in 1997, the Taipei-based NCREE has integrated earthquake engineering research personnel from all over the country, remained committed to innovative earthquake engineering research and contributed to earthquake disaster prevention. However, this experiment facility in Taipei is no longer sufficient; therefore, the second experiment facility is set up by NCREE with the hope of improving Taiwan's research on earthquake engineering and disaster prevention measures.
Since 2002, NCKU has set up a planning team which was then actively participated by earthquake engineering researchers and experts from the four universities under the Taiwan Comprehensive University System (TCUS) after the establishment of the system. Through NCREE's open selection for its second experiment facility, the final assessment in 2012 revealed that TCUS would be given first rights to set up NCREE's second facility at NCKU's Guei-Ren Campus.
The future NCREE second experiment facility will focus its efforts on addressing technical issues on the people's livelihood construction and high economic value industries, enhancing the overall capability of research and development (R&D) of earthquake engineering, improving national earthquake disaster prevention knowledge as well as establishing earthquake engineering technology exchange.
At the same time, it is believed that the R&D capability of the southern region in earthquake engineering can be greatly enhanced due to the setup of the second experiment facility which provides experiment environment and equipment. Not only it will help balance academic development and implementation of research outcomes in the industrial world, this facility will also assist in the economic development of the southern region of Taiwan.
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