Volume 3, Number 4, December 2005

21ST BRIDGE ENGINEERING WORKSHOPThe Panel’s Task Committee G on Transportation System hosted its 21st US-Japan Bridge
Engineering Workshop during 3-5 October 2005 at the Public Works Research Institute (PWRI),
Tsukuba, Japan. This two and half days Workshop focused on: 1) Advancing SeismicEngineering, 2) Geotechnical Technology, and 3) Bridge Management System. Twenty
participants from the US and 70 participants from Japan attended the workshop where 45 papers
were presented on bridge engineering. The workshop closed with the Resolutions that the 22ndWorkshop will be held in the US in the fall of 2006. Specific dates, location and themes of the next
workshop will be finalized in May 2006 during the Panel’s 38th annual Joint Panel Meeting.
Following the Workshop, the US participants and members of Japan side’s Task Committee
participated in three-days of technical site visits in the greater Kobe, Osaka, and Kyodo city area.
Visits included the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention‘s(NIED) 3-D Full-Scale Earthquake Testing Facility (E-Defense) at the Hyogo Earthquake
Engineering Research Center in Miki City, the Akashi-Kaikyo Suspension Bridge (world’slongest bridge), seismic retrofit of the Minato Bridge in Osaka, and a new tunnel construction siteof the Hanshin Expressway Public Corporations.
Contact: Dr. Philip Yen, FHWA, wen-huei.yen@fhwa.dot.gov and Chair, US-side Task
Committee on Transportation Systems.

Group photo of delegation at the long-span Minato cantilever truss bridge, Osaka.

BRI STARTED MULTI-PURPOSE EXPERIMENTS
USING FULL-SCALE FOUR-STORY WOOD FRAME BUILDING
Since 2005, four-story wood buildings are being
constructed in Japan. These four-story buildings require
high seismic safety, fire safety, and related performancestandards. To investigate and verify building performance,
BRI began conducting multi-purpose experiments in
November 2005 using a full-scale four-story wood framebuilding (see photo). Research includes:
z dynamic performance of structures (natural frequency,damping factor),z structural vibration by traffic, wind, and earthquakes,
z structural effect of tie-down system,z structural effect of gypsum boards and sidings,
z shrinkage of height of structures during and after
construction,z performance of sound insulation between floors andwalls,z effect of passive sound insulator for floors,z effect of response reducer for traffic vibration (passiveand active).

Full-scale wood frame building during
construction

Preliminary results on shrinkage during construction revealed more than 4mm shrinkage in thewood frames was observed from contraction of wood (shrinkage). Reduction in the height ofstructures between each story and foundation were measured during and after construction.
Figure 1 shows a time domain vertical displacement at the fourth floor.
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Figure 1. Shrinkage -Time domain curves at the fourth floor

Contacts: Mr. Nobuyoshi Yamaguchi, Senior Research Engineer, Department of Building
Materials and Components, BRI, yamaguch@kenken.go.jp, Dr. Naohito Kawai, Chief ResearchEngineer, Department of Structural Engineering, BRI, kawai@kenken.go.jp, Dr. Shiro Makajima,
Chief Research Engineer, Department of Building Materials and Components, BRI,
nakajima@kenken.go.jp