RAPID: Low-Cost, Strong-Motion Sensor Packages to Obtain Full Spectrum Waveforms for Earthquake Early Warning and Structural Monitoring Applications

该快速反应研究基金(RAPID)为地球科学和结构工程研究界研究低成本、强震动仪器，以提供一种新的跨学科数据类型：基于高速全球定位系统(GPS)和超高速加速度计数据的最佳组合的实时全谱位移。这些新的数据既能充分捕捉动态和静态近场强运动，又能对其进行实时分析和表征。以毫米级精度获得三维全谱波形的能力也是快速、全面地估计大型工程结构(例如桥梁、建筑物和大坝)在全周期范围内响应的突破。这种方法将地震描述的及时性提高了一个数量级，并通过覆盖从很高频率一直到直流(DC)偏移量的整个地面形变频谱，提高了地震描述的全面性。该项目将从放置在五层建筑测试样本上的五个原型传感器包中收集易腐烂的结构响应数据，该测试样本是根据美国国家科学基金会颁发的CMMI 0936505建造的，将于2012年初在加州大学圣地亚哥分校的NEES室外振动台上经历强烈地震运动。传感器通过集成更充分地利用地震和大地测量仪器，为研究大地震的过程及其构成的灾害提供了新的技术范例，从而提供了一种新的数据观测类型。传感器设备在地震学、海啸和结构工程领域有应用，这些领域需要早期检测、预警或损害评估。通过该设备收集和处理的信息可以在强烈地震发生后立即被当局和急救人员使用。该项目还促进协作和跨学科研究，对技术先进的研究生和本科生进行教育，加强多样性以支持劳动力发展，并通过使用具有直接社会影响的综合数据集来改进课程。

This Grant for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) investigates low-cost, strong-motion instrumentation for the earth sciences and structural engineering research communities to provide a new interdisciplinary data type: real-time, full spectrum displacements based on an optimal combination of high-rate global positioning system (GPS) and very high-rate accelerometer data. These new data both fully capture dynamic and static near-field strong motion and enable its analysis and characterization in real time. The ability to obtain full spectrum waveforms in three dimensions with millimeter precision is also a breakthrough for rapidly and fully estimating the response of large engineered structures (for example, bridges, buildings, and dams) at the full range of periods. This approach improves the timeliness of earthquake characterization by an order of magnitude and improves its fullness by spanning the full spectrum of ground deformation from the very high frequencies all the way through to direct current (DC) offsets. The project will gather perishable structural response data from five prototype sensor packages placed on the five-story building test specimen, constructed under NSF award CMMI 0936505, that will undergo strong seismic motion on the NEES outdoor shake table at the University of California, San Diego in early 2012. The sensors enable a new technological paradigm for studying the processes of large earthquakes and the hazards they pose by taking fuller advantage of seismic and geodetic instrumentation through integration, thereby providing a new data observation type. The sensor devices have applications in the fields of seismology, tsunamis, and structural engineering, where early detection, warning or damage assessment is needed. Information gathered and processed with the device could be used by authorities and first responders in the very immediate aftermath of a strong earthquake. This project also promotes collaborative and interdisciplinary research, education of technologically sophisticated graduate and undergraduate students, strengthening of diversity in support of workforce development, and enhancement of curricula through engagement with integrated data sets that have direct societal impact.