From the editors

正Dear Members of the Editorial Board,Contributors and Friends,2018 is the tenth anniversary of the Wcnchuan earthquake disaster.To commemorate the Wenchuan earthquake disaster,the journal of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibration(EEEV)will publish special sections with invited papers in the issues of 2018.We sincerely appreciate the contributions from the following experts:Professor Masayoshi NAKASHIMA.Professor Hongnan LI,and Professor Ying ZHOU.     

From the editors

The year 2007 is a transformational one for us as the Journal of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibration changes from a semi-annual to a quarterly schedule and is published by Springer Verlag. Beginning with Vol. 6, No. 1, four issues of about 100 pages each will be published each year. The journal will continue to be available in print format, and a new electronic offering will be accessible through SpringerLink, Springer's Internet portal. We believe     

From the editors

The year 2007 is a transformational one for us as the Journal of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibration changes from a semi-annual to a quarterly schedule and is published by     

Near-fault ground motions with prominent acceleration pulses： pulse characteristics and ductility demand

Major earthquakes of last 15 years (e.g., Northridge 1994, Kobe 1995 and Chi-Chi 1999) have shown that many near-fault ground motions possess prominent acceleration pulses. Some of the prominent ground acceleration pulses are related to large ground velocity pulses, others are caused by mechanisms that are totally different from those causing the velocity pulses or fling steps. Various efforts to model acceleration pulses have been reported in the literature. In this paper, research results from a recent study of acceleration pulse prominent ground motions and an analysis of structural damage induced by acceleration pulses are summarized. The main results of the study include: (1) temporal characteristics of acceleration pulses; (2) ductility demand spectrum of simple acceleration pulses with respect to equivalent classes of dynamic systems and pulse characteristic parameters; and (3) estimation of fundamental period change under the excitation of strong acceleration pulses. By using the acceleration pulse induced linear acceleration spectrum and the ductility demand spectrum, a simple procedure has been developed to estimate the ductility demand and the fundamental period change of a reinforced concrete (RC) structure under the impact of a strong acceleration pulse.     

From the editors

Dear Contributors, Readers and Friends:It has been three years since the 512 Wenchuan disaster. Restoration of the affected region has been rapidly progressing.At the same time, many post-earthquake research activities have been completed. In next issue, a special section isdevoted to lessons learned from the Great Wenchuan Earthquake.     

From the editors: special issue announcement

The world community was shocked and deeply saddened by the 512 disaster and massive losses in Sichuan caused by the Wenchuan earthquake. To commemorate the first anniversary of this disaster, the June 2009 issue (Vol. 8, No.     

Notice of Retraction

Apostolakis,G.,Qu,B.,Ecemis,N.and Dogruel,S.(2007).Field reconnaissance of the 2007 Niigata-Chuetsu Oki earthquake,Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibration,Volume 6(4):pages 317-330. Authors Statement of Retraction and Apology(abbreviated version) We request the retraction of our paper entitledField reconnaissance of the 2007 Niigata-Chuetsu Oki earthquakeby Apostolakis G.,Qu B.,Ecemis N.,and Dogruel S(2007) published in the Volume 6,No.4 issue of the Journal of Earthquake Engineering and Enginee...     

Local measurement for structural health monitoring

Localized nature of damage in structures requires local measurements for structural health monitoring. The local measurement means to measure the local, usually higher modes of the vibration in a structure. Three fundamental issues about the local measurement for structural health monitoring including (1) the necessity of making local measurement, (2) the difficulty of making local measurement and (3) how to make local measurement are addressed in this paper. The results from both the analysis and the tests show that the local measurement can successfully monitor the structural health status as longas the local mod es are excited. Unfortunately, the results also illustrate that it is difficult to excite local modes in a structure. Therefore, in order to carry structural health monitoring into effect, we must ( 1 ) ensure that the local modes are excited, and (2) deploy enough sensors in a structure so that the local modes can be monitored.