CHENNAI: Chennai-based Structural Engineering Research Centre (CSIR-SERC), a pioneer advanced seismic testing and research laboratory under the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), has completed the testing of the German-developed “Early Earthquake Warning and Security System”, which was launched for the first time in India early this year.
Germany-based manufacturing company Secty Electronics with its Indian partner Terra Techcom has claimed that the tests were successful and got the green signal from Haryana government for installation of the ‘life-saving’ gadget at the mini-secretariat in Chandigarh on March 14.
“The Haryana government has asked us to do the testing in any of the Indian laboratories and SERC was the only advanced facility available. The testing was conducted on Thursday and the scientists have expressed their satisfaction,” Bijender Goel, managing director, Terra Techcom, said.
N Gopalakrishnan, chief principal scientist and an expert in structural dynamics and earthquake engineering, told Express that the test reports would be made public in a couple of days. “We conducted all relevant tests. Basically, we tried to measure the peak ground acceleration (g) and peak ground velocity on an intensity scale through real-time tests, which will give us the estimate of how much time the device gives for the people or authorities to take evasive action. For instance, at 0.001g, people will feel the tremor, and at 0.02 g, people will lose their balance.”
Juergen Przybylak, managing director, Secty Electronics, said the GEO research centre in Germany collated 100-year data on earthquakes and developed an algorithm. “Our company has developed warning system software based on the algorithm to detect the P (primary) wave that the device alerts before the secondary waves hit the structure and, thus, giving more time for people to escape.”
The technology has already been put to critical testing at GFZ-Potsdam, and was certified ‘most effective’ and 26 countries have already installed it, claimed those behind the project.