Use of Immersive Virtual Environments As A Collaborative Tool For The Study of Architectural Building Components Subjected to Earthquake Excitations

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The main objectives of this research are to:Investigate different methods of implementing and linking a visualization application to existing computer software for the analysis of structures. Study the behavior of the architectural components and their interaction with the structural elements of buildings during earthquakes.This project focuses on the studies resulting in the development of a virtual environment computer software that can help provide better understanding in the area of the design of architectural components specially partitions and suspended ceiling systems. This project consists of two phases. During the first phase computer software (VIRTUAL-SAP) will be created to develop "Smart Building Models". This is a virtual reality model of a building which is linked through intermediary software to a structural analysis program. PC-SAP4 (Structural Analysis Program) originally developed at the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of California, Berkeley, has been tested and applied to various problems during the past 25 years. This project will use PC-SAP4 for the structural analysis of building structures. The CAVE (Cave Automated Virtual Environmental) will be used for the generation of the building structural model. The system will allow the user to "immerse" him/herself in a virtual world that has all the tools required to build a complete structural model, including loading, suitable for analysis and design. As an example of the application of the developed computer program the second phase of the project involves the use of the software developed in the first phase (VIRTUAL-SAP) to study the behavior of different architectural components under simulated seismic loading and provide an understanding of the behavior of these elements for the architects and contractors. The interaction of these elements with the structure and with each other subjected to low and moderate earthquake motions will be demonstrated and studied. Different configurations of connecting elements and boundary conditions will be considered.