A Portable Prototype to Collect Accelerographic Data to Identify Hazard of Structural Damage on Buildings after a Seismic Event

Summary form only given. We have developed a prototype that uses medium range smartphones running on the Android platform, to collect and register accelerographic data of the movement experimented by buildings or civil structures during a seismic event, in order to identify potential hazard of structural failures. At the moment the National Accelerographic Network, system managed by the Venezuelan Foundation for Seismological Research (FUNVISIS), uses an ETNA accelerographs platform to record and collect accelerographic data for the study and evaluation of seismic events. In this research we are interested in evaluating how good is the data collected by our prototype against the data that could be obtained by a current professional platform in order to identify the potential applicability of our prototype as a part of the FUNVISIS platform. Our prototype uses smartphones as a system of sensor nodes that are always in recording mode. The devices will be placed on specific fixed locations of a structure where the movement feels more intensely to detect if the acceleration suffered has been so strong that exceeded the threshold identified for this particular civil structure. The threshold for each construction is based on the seismic resistant standards and the charge distribution of the building structure. The purpose is to generate an early warning during the occurrence of a seismic event that could be able to prevent people to stay in buildings that may be considered hazardous and that should require an expert evaluation before it could be in use again.