Application of an earthquake early warning system and a real-time strong motion monitoring system in emergency response in a high-rise building

Abstract

We apply a combination of earthquake early warning system (EEWS) and real-time strong motion monitoring system (RSMS) to emergency response for a high-rise building; The Kogakuin University has a 29-story high-rise building in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. The proposed strategy is based on the Plan, Do, Check, Action (PDCA) Cycle to brush up the systems and the users: in the “Plan” stage, we apply EEWS and RSMS to the building, where EEWS predicts not only short-period strong ground motions but also long-period ground motions [1]. The system is built into a building announcement system, an emergency elevator control system, and an email message system, which quickly send emails to the emergency response team. Meanwhile, RSMS provides information on seismic intensities at each floor of the building via the web browser in real time using the existing network in the building. In addition, the building response and structural damage can be estimated based on this information. The network system is impervious to the earthquake damage, because the network cable has extra length, there is, however, possible that a network system does not work due to power outage. Thus, we develop the network system that has uninterruptible power-supply system (UPS) and apply it to EEWS and RSMS. The high-rise building has the emergency call units to the security control center in the building on every floor. The emergency call line, however, will be busy promptly, because it is able to use only one line. Therefore, we installed IP telephone which uses the network system on main floors. UPS will work about 30 min after a major earthquake, it is supposed to be enough time for gathering the damage information about the building during initial response. In the “Do” stage, we prepare emergency response instruction manuals and educate the faculty members and students to carry out promptly emergency response. In the “Check” stage, the validity of the proposed systems are verified by carrying out an earthquake drill in an actual high-rise building. The earthquake drill confirmed that our proposed approach is valid. In the final “Action” stage, we improve these systems and emergency response manual and educate people in the building how to use effectively these systems.