2021 Volume 57 Issue 5 Pages 253-259
Japan's social capital stock was accumulated and concentrated during its era of high economic growth. However, in a future deterioration is a mounting concern. Over the next 20 years, facilities 50 years old or older will become increasingly common. Therefore, the urgent need exists to maintain and renew such aging infrastructure. Unfortunately many steel structures were constructed using frame-welded joints of fillet welded construction and a welded base. Moreover, these weld joints have little capacity to absorb energy during great earthquakes. Therefore, for designing steel structures incorporating welded joints, strong earthquake-resistance characteristics must be specially provided for those joints of steel welded bases. Furthermore, structural monitoring will be necessary. This report describes, using simple measurements and simulations, our piezoelectric joint sensors for evaluating resistance and displacement characteristics of fillet welded construction.
