The leaning tower of Pisa has started to tilt even at the very beginning of its construction in 11th century. Since then, the tower has kept leaning for 800 years. Professor Burland has notably been involved in the rescuing the Leaning Tower of Pisa for which he was a member of the Italian Prime Minister's Commission for stabilising the tower. Thanks to their considerable effort, the tower has regained its stability and now it is open to people. Prof. Burland talked about 10-year struggle of engineers and researchers to rescue the tower, in his lecture at IIS, the University of Tokyo on June 17, 2009.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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[in Japanese]

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We have been researched on the digital archiving of cultural assets,particularly, outdoor huge cultural heritages. This work is very important for not onlythe field of information science but also other fields such as arts,humanities, archaeology, architecture and so on. In this paper, we first describe ourIIS-joint work which is the measuring “Sazae-do”, a famous wooden architecture inJapan. In the second half, we explain our applications of measured data tointroducedigital archiving and information archaeology. These examples ofapplications are from both Japan and foreign countries. Throughout these examples, we demonstrate the signification of our e-heritage projects.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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In this paper, an investigation on building-decrepitude due to damp and dryness was conducted. And a desiccant air-conditioning system was proposed as preventive policy for building-decrepitude.
In hot and humid climates, dew condensation can induce proliferation of microbe, mold and white ant; those are decisive culprits for building-decrepitude. As part of the solution, a batch-type desiccant air-conditioning system for detached houses was proposed and its operating mode and characteristics were reported. In order to estimate the performance of the proposed system, numerical analysis models were developed. By coupling simulation with numerical analysis models, the humidification-heating performance and the dehumidification-cooling performance of the proposed system was evaluated.

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When modern construction methods were introduced from the West starting in the Meiji period, nontraditional timber buildings began to be erected. These buildings were designed by structural experts instead of craftsmen. But because it is vulnerable to fire, the Building Standards Law of 1919 and 1950 prohibited the use of timber for large buildings. Timber school building, two storied buildings, can be built after 1950. Because these timber schools were aged over 100years and those structural properties are not clear, it was hard to decide which to choose preservation or reconstruction. This report would like to be a material for preservation.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Some non-destructive air permeability tests were proposed as a means for durability diagnosis of newly constructed concrete structures. This study examined the influence of curing conditions on the results of the non-destructive air permeability test and carbonation resistance. The specimens which were cured by sealing or extraordinary drying showed positive correlation between the surface air permeability coefficient and the accelerated carbonation speed coefficient. In the case of the specimens by water curing, the accelerated carbonation speed coefficient scattered with respect to the similar value of the air permeability coefficient.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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It is reported that chemically prestressed concrete (CPC) shows unique behaviors such as high tension stiffening effect and high deformability. In this paper, the mechanism of those behaviors is discussed. As a result, it is confirmed that many micro cracks are generated in CPC because of initial strain introduced by expansion of expansive agent. CPC didn't show sudden increase in rebar due to cracking. It seems that prestrain and micro cracks reduced localization of deformation.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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In this study, unconfined compression tests on a traditional rammed earth wall material were carried out with different curing periods and curing conditions in order to evaluate its mechanical properties. The unconfined compression test results showed that peak strength and deformation modulus of the rammed earth wall material increase with decrease in the water content of the specimen. In the case with the water contents of around 2 %, in particular the peak strength and the deformation modulus are susceptible to change of the water content. Increase of suction that is associated with the decrease of the water content seems to be the cause for the strength increase of this wall material.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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This paper is on the renovation project of Building No.60 in Komaba Research Campus.The property of the building and the circumstances of the project is reported. And then, the method to deal with historicity of the building is argued. In order to express the contrast between old part of the building and new one, the renovation plan is considered to keep the old part revealed: the original structure exposed, simple extensional volume, the mechanical chimney attached for the equipment, and the under-floor chamber for air-conditioning without the ceiling.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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The role of maintenance and renewal work is getting its importance in Japan since we have less new construction and more buildings to keep as stocks. Public spaces covered with large roofs, such as covered baseball stadia, are good examples. The average of service time of the existing buildings is 42 years while that of the lifetime of already demolished buildings is 33 years. Many of the Japanese public spaces with large roofs are facing to the big long period of renovation. We need to develop better schemes to use the existing buildings as the useful stocks of the society.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system was originally developed and introduced to control a Shinkansen (bullet train) when earthquake occurs. However, this system has also been introduced to conventional lines and private company trains. In this research, the lead time between EEW and the arrival of S-wave was calculated for all the railway networks in the Tokyo metropolitan area assuming the occurrence of the northern Tokyo Bay earthquake, and the effects of EEW for disaster reduction were analyzed. As a result, it was shown that the risk to passengers could be reduced drastically using EEW especially in case that EEW information was shared among all railway companies.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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This research examined Smart Phone about the possibility as the tool that reinforce a high density system of the seismic shaking observation. It paid attention to the built-in acceleration sensor of Smart Phone, the application of vibration data collection was developed, and the sensor performance was basic examined according to the acceleration data experimentally collected. The acceleration data of the XYZ element as the file of the text form obtained by the developed application was made forward to outside PC as an attached file by the mail on the sending and receiving function of Smart Phone. A frequency response and reproducibility of seismic wave of Smart Phone was evaluated by shaking table.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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We develop the IT triage system, which can collect disaster medical information in real time and share it in to the entire region such as the medical institution, the administration, and residents.
This system was applied for the triage training in the University of Yamanashi Hospital with 450 participants. This system was achieved not only upgrade or sophisticate of triage way such as the patient number for each triage level, the accepted patient number in each diagnosis and treatment department, the automatic response for triage level changing, but also share the those information among hospitals, the administration, and residents in real time.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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A new receiving transducer derived by piezoceramic bimorfh for the elastic wave measurement method suited on triaxial apparatus is developed. The bimorph receiver was employed on three geo materials, Toyoura sand, Silica sand and Hime gravel. The performance and results are verified comparing the results obtained by small strain cyclic loadings and wave measurement by Trigger Accelerometer methods. The received signals by Trigger Bimorph receiver and Trigger Accelerometer methods are directly compared and equivalent performance was observed.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Cyclic deformation characteristics of cement-treated clay were evaluated by conducting a series of hollow cylindrical torsional shear tests. They were also compared with those obtained by relevant cyclic triaxial tests. Due to effects of tensile failure, the equivalent shear modulus in the torsional shear tests degraded at smaller shear strain levels than in the triaxial tests. Such trend of behavior was more significantly observed under smaller confining stresses. In conducting earthquake response analyses of cement-treated ground, such effect of tensile failure shall be properly considered.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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