抄録
The Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (January 17, 1995) clearly demonstrated that the occurrence of very strong ground motion in the area near to the seismic faults is capable of causing severe structural damage beyond general estimation. It has emphasized the importance of earthquake engineering research into why and how structures collapse in real earthquake conditions. Considering the lessons learnt from recent earthquake disasters, National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster prevention (NIED) plan to construct the 3-D Full-Scale Earthquake Testing Facility (E-Defense is the nickname of this facility), which will be able to simulate the process of destruction of structures under the condition of real strong earthquake motions. The basic performances of E-Defense are maximum lording capacity 1, 200 tons, maximum velocity 200 cm/s and maximum displacement 2 m p-p for two horizontal excitations and maximum velocity 70 cm/s, maximum displacement 1 m p-p for vertical excitation to realize destructive ground motion. The driving energies are mainly produced by the hydraulic power system, which is consisted 10 horizontal actuators, 14 vertical actuators, 20 main-accumulator units, 4 gas-engine units, oil supply system (include piping system) and others. The construction has begun at early 2000, five year after the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and was completed at the beginning 2005, ten year after that Earthquake.
