Scientists at Lobachevsky UNN, the largest university in Nizhny Novgorod, in the mid-Volga area, have launched a project to develop solutions to improve seismic and wind resistance of buildings, the UNN website .

A group of researchers from two UNN academic units, the Institute of IT, Math and Mechanics and the Department of Radio Physics, obtained grant funding from the Russian government to research and develop solutions for active control of structural vibrations in buildings. They expect to use microwave sensing to measure the deformation of structural elements on a real time basis, and then investigate into ways of using active vibration damping in their new system.

Particular emphasis will be placed on the mitigation of vibrations that are caused by wind and seismic excitations.

The $490,000+ three-year grant has been allocated under a sizable federal program designed to incentivize R&D in Russia’s priority tech development areas, to be in effect through 2020.