FUNDAMENTAL STUDY ON DEVELOPMENT OF SEISMIC RESPONSE ANALYSIS MODEL OF HUMAN BODIES CONSIDERING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

Abstract

　The consideration of indoor safety during severe earthquake is necessary to minimize casualties in buildings. Most human casualties occur as injuries, such as bruises caused by overturning of furniture. However, injuries from the seismic response of humans, for example, being knocked down by earthquake shaking or the head collision to the wall, also could occur. It is important to consider the human response to the earthquake motions for the evaluation of indoor earthquake safety.

　Several studies have been conducted on human seismic response, and the seismic response analysis model of human bodies was developed based on the shaking table test which input earthquake motions to human subjects. However, the individual differences in human seismic response have not been studied so far. When investigations on human damages under severe earthquake shaking are conducted, person-to-person differences are considered critical.

　The purpose of this study was to identify the individual differences of human seismic response, and to develop the seismic response analysis model of human bodies which can consider the difference. For that purpose, first, a difference in human seismic response was investigated by comparing the shaking table test results of two human subjects. The comparison results showed that there is a difference between two subjects’ seismic response in the existence of residual displacement and the coping strategy to the shaking.

　Then, a novel feedback control method of the seismic response analysis model of human bodies was proposed where a time dependent reference value of the control system was adopted. Then the proposed model succeeded to reproduce the person-to-person difference between two subjects. In addition, response analyses of human bodies were conducted with the developed model inputting various strong motion records. The response analysis results showed that the characteristics of the differences in seismic response between subjects in the shaking table test were also shown in the results of the response analysis, and they vary depending on the frequency characteristics of the input earthquake motion.