Proceedings of the US-Japan Joint Seminar on Civil Infrastructure Systems Research

Keywords: Civil Infrastructure systems.  Condition assessment.  Nondestructive evaluation.  Highway bridges.  Japan.  United States.  Rehabilitation.  High strength concrete.  Concrete deterioration.

Abstract: A two and one-half day Bilateral Seminar on Civil Infrastructure Systems (CIS) Research was held on August 28-30, 1997, under the joint sponsorship of the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Japan Society for Promotion of Science, with supplementary support by the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research.  This seminar provided a forum for identifying and comparing common CIS issues in the U.S. and Japan, exchanging ideas on solutions, promoting cooperative research between the two nations, and formulating action plans, all in the frontier areas of CIS research involving the following main themes of study: 1) Aging and deterioration; 2) Health monitoring and conditioning assessment; 3) Renewal engineering; 4) Socioeconomic issues, including institutional effectiveness and productivity; and 5) Research coordination.  The seminar consisted of five plenary technical sessions addressing the five themes, two break-out workshop sessions and three plenary sessions for the development and adoption of a working group report, resolutions and recommendations.  Executive sessions dealt with administrative needs and facilitated communication among conference and session chairs in developing the resolutions and recommendations.  Each of the twenty-eight participants from the U.S. and Japan presented a paper on the CIS issues of his/her expertise.  Four papers concern concrete structures.  Two concern steel bridges.  Five papers treat health monitoring and condition assessment of civil infrastructure systems, and three papers consider the rehabilitation of civil infrastructure The remaining papers treat economic issues, sustainability, research coordination, and the varied perspectives of government, academic and industry on CIS issues.