| Research Abstract |
Building structures are exposed to many natural disturbances, such as earthquakes, typhoons or tornadoes. Behaviors of conventional structures under such disturbances have been well studied. However behaviors of spatial structures, unconventional structures which are used for special purposes, such as large enclosures, tall masts or cooling towers, are not well understood, yet.
The research about the behavior of spatial structures under natural disasters have been commenced by professor Yasuhiko Hangai and professor Phillip Gould as a part of academic exchange program between Institute of Industrial Science (IIS ), University of Tokyo and Washington University (WU) Department of Engineering. After Prof. Hangai's sudden demise Dr.Nishida and Prof. Kawaguchi have succeeded the Japanese side research.
Prof. Kawaguchi, Dr.Miyazaki and both of Profs. Gould and Sridharan, Washington University in St. Louts, attended the APCS2000 (Asian Pacific Conference on Shell and Spatial Structures) held in Soul, Korea, 15-18, October 2000, and presented the papers. The chairman of this conference was Prof. Kwun, Sungkyunkwan University, who was one of cooperative researchers of this research. The meeting was held at the conference place and they confirmed research activities and discussed about contents of the final report and future co-operation. After that, the final report summarized our three years joint research was made and submitted.
During this three years the researchers met frequently and exchanged the latest information and discussed about the topics. Since the activity has been very active and fruitful we are trying to continue this academic research and keep our relationships. We are discussing to encourage younger researchers to be involved in the research and extend our activity to exchange of graduate students.
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