Messages from Departments and Centers of NILIM

Agendas formaintenanceaddressingbuildingStandards’

MUKAI Akiyoshi, Director of the Building Department(Keywords) The Great East Japan Earthquake, The Building Standards Act, Standard draft
1. Introduction
In architectural research department, the mission is tosupport administration for technical standards ofarchitecture, fire protection and facilities / environment
in Building Standards Act, Housing Quality Assurance
Act and Energy Saving Act to achieve safety andsecurity and comfortable living environment. Regarding
agendas that has been addressed to create standard draftfor earthquake disaster based on research estimates in
research assignments that the architectural department
has addressed and building standards’ maintenancepromotion business to maintenance standards, and thesewill be explained here. Situation and trend in each area
are as follows;
Architecture area: Building certification / examination
was tightened by the amendment of Building Standards
Act in 2006 for prevention of recurrence of those casessuch as the architecture accounting statement deception
case. And after that, various measures have been
implemented to promote the institution smoothly.
Fire protection area: Act for Promotion of Use ofWood in Public Buildings has been promulgated andimplemented in 2010, but the possibility of easing of
regulations in Building Standards Act by a research
regarding fire resistance of wooden building has been
considered.
Environment area: Various measures have been
implemented for energy reduction during construction
and operation.
Regarding The Great East Japan Earthquake, Tsunami,
ceiling falling off, escalator dropping, soil liquefaction
and long-period ground shaking have been considered tobe necessary items that are needed to be addressed intechnical standards.
2. Project research
There are 4 NILIM projects that the architecturalresearch department has been addressing.
『Development of urban system for low-carbon andhydrogen energy system (hydrogen full pro)(2009-2012)』Using hydrogen as an energy media, it is todevelop construction technology to achieve minimizationof hydrogen plumbing in safety with CO2 emission for a

formulation of urban energy system that does not depend
on fossil fuel too much. It is to develop measures toassess fossil fuel dependence of city along with loadcurtailment of construction side, using high- efficiency
equipments and renewable energy facility.
『 Development of evaluation of seismic capacity
technology for architectural structures which responds toupgrading of ground shaking information.(highearthquake resistant full pro) (2010-2012)』 It is possible
to figure out the characteristic of ground shaking at a
voluntary point with recent maintenance of seismic
network and progress ofseismology. In groundshaking that is observed or predicted, there is someground shaking that exceeds designed earthquake load
which is a supposition of current aseismic design. On theother hand, earthquake load that acts on architectural
structures are known that has a possibility to be cut down
if ground shaking on the ground level is deemed to enter
directly to architectural structures. It is important to findout the relationship between 『ground shaking』and『 earthquake load 』 along with predicting groundshaking accurately to assess seismic capacity properly.
Therefore development of seismic capacity assessment
technology for more reasonable architectural structuresthat respond to upgrading of ground shaking information
has been addressed with collecting and analyzing ofearthquake observed records of as many architecturalstructures as possible.
『Research regarding an adoption of new technology
of architectural structures that focus on renewableenergy.(2011-2013) 』
energy consumption ofarchitectural structures has been increasing withimprovement in living standards. With proceeding
thermal structure of architectural structures andequipment efficiency, it is important to use naturalenergy (renewable energy) that exists on the premises ofarchitectural structures, and a formulation of new
standards that have renewable energy is needed.
『 Research regarding fire disaster security ofthree-story wooden schools(2011-2015) 』 Wood iseffective to prevent global warming and low-carbon
emissions during manufacturing compare to otherMessages from Departments and Centers of NILIM
materials, and it also eases humidity change of room andhas merits to augment comfort. However it has been hard
to construct with wood, because high fire resistance has
been required for three-story wooden schools by theBuilding Standards Act. Regarding these regulations, it
is supposed to review based on the results of the research
about fire resistance of wood due to the enforcement of『Act for Promotion of Use of Wood in Public Buildings
2010 』 . It has been considered to contribute tomaintenance of technical standard that can ensure
security during fire disaster by actual fire experiment of
three-story wooden school along with research andexamination of element experiment and simulation tofind out possible conditions to ease by technical aspect.
Except those project researches, 『Research regarding
assessment measure and standard of earthquake-proof
safety of exterior material 』 , 『 Research regarding
technical standard of structural calculation program that
contributes to smooth architecture affairs 』,『Researchregarding calculation method ofevacuation safe
performance and expected standard during building onfire』, and these researched have been addressed
3. Consideration, creation and presentation oftechnical standard draftIn architectural research department, agendas have set
that responds to research and development, andcorrespondence based on the damage of The Great East
Japan Earthquake, and consideration, creation andpresentation of technical standard draft has beenaddressed. Main agendas especially related to The Great
East Japan Earthquake are; 『 Standards regarding
requirements of Tsunami evacuation building instructure 』 , 『 Standards regarding ceiling fallingprovision』,『Consideration of measures for long period
ground shaking』. And the one that the architecturalresearch department was related to research anddevelopment are 『 Consideration of review of fire
prevention standards regarding large-scale woodenbuilding.
Regarding these, Building Construction Standards
Committee, Architecture Fire Protection Standards
Committee that have knowledgeable persons fromacademic society are established and operated in NILIM.
The structure that reviews technical standards based on
opinions from strategists has been maintained.
The Building Construction Standards Committee has
especially been considering The Great East Japan
Earthquake. The committee has done a field
investigation in April, 2011, and it started considering
provisions based on architectural structure damages, andit took place 5 committee meetings by October, 2013.
Based on these councils in the committee, it wasreflected in Residence Chief Notice in November, 2011
『 Review of guideline regarding requirements ofTsunami evacuation building in structure 』 , MLIT
Announcement in December, 2011『Technical Standard
Announcement of designated evacuation facility basedon Tsunami Disaster Prevention Regional Construction
Act』The committee had also invited opinions (Publicopinion) regarding 『 Technical Standards Draft forceiling falling』and 『Technical Standards Draft for
escalator dropping prevention』 between July 31 and
September 15, 2012.
Regarding these, it will be considered using BuildingStandards Maintenance Promotion Business. (Businessthat supports for the cost advertising for people who docollection and accumulation of basic data and technicalknowledge from experimental trials about agendas thatare set by the government for requirements to formulate
and revise technical standards in Building Standards Act.
Established in 2008, and research was implemented
regarding 27 agendas in 2012.)
4. Challenges for the future
As challenges for the future related to the earthquake
disaster, there are long period ground shaking provision,liquefaction of premises of residence measure.
Relate to long period ground shaking, it invite public
opinions by presenting a long period ground shaking
measure daft policy in December, 2010 before The Great
East Japan Earthquake, and the draft policy will bereviewed by referring the consideration in Central
Disaster Prevention Council and Headquarters ofEarthquake Res. Promotion and observational data fromThe Great East Japan Earthquake. Regardingliquefaction of premises, simple liquefaction opinion
measure that can apply to small - scale architectural
structures by the Standard Maintenance Promotion
Business has been considered.
The architectural research department has been doing
administrative support with technical knowledge
regarding technical draft formulation, and it also thinksthat it is important to collect and accumulate knowledge
by research including basic research and technicaldevelopment, and the architectural research department
works day after day.
Reference1) TECHNICAL NOTE of NILIM No.699 pp.43-54
http://www.nilim.go.jp/lab/bcg/siryou/tnn/tnn0699pdf/ks06990
9.pdf