The experimental seismic testing of a 1/5-length scale model, slender bridge steel truss pier was conducted to investigate the use of a controlled rocking approach as a means of seismic protection. The controlled rocking approach allows the pier to uplift from its base, partially isolating the structure, while passive energy dissipation devices (steel yielding devices, fluid viscous dampers) ar...

We present a magnetic resonance elastography approach for tissue characterization that is inspired by seismic noise correlation and time reversal. The idea consists of extracting the elasticity from the natural shear waves in living tissues that are caused by cardiac motion, blood pulsatility, and any muscle activity. In contrast to other magnetic resonance elastography techniques, this noise-b...

Localized rain events have been found to follow power-law distributions over several decades, suggesting parallels between precipitation and seismic activity [O. Peters et al., PRL 88, 018701 (2002)]. Similar power laws can be generated by treating raindrops as passive tracers advected by the velocity field of a two-dimensional system of point vortices [R. Dickman, PRL 90, 108701 (2003)]. Here ...

In the recent years, much attention has been paid to the research and development of structural control techniques with particular emphasis on alleviation of wind and seismic responses of buildings and bridges in China. Structural control in civil engineering has been developed from the concept into a workable technology and applied into practical engineering structures. The aim of this paper i...

This article describes a mechanical vertical attenuation system capable to provide large attenuation factors above 1Hz. This system is derived from, and improves, the passive Geometric Anti-Spring seismic attenuation filters minimizing their vertical resonant frequency by means of a tunable electromagnetic spring mounted in parallel with the main spring. The tunable spring is also used to compe...