Earthquake Safety System

Abstract

To provide an earthquake security system that can easily estimate the damage on the house of each user by an earthquake and can easily determine the priority of recovery works.SOLUTION: The earthquake security system includes: a measurement unit for measuring gas flowing in a gas apparatus; an acceleration sensor for detecting an acceleration; a body part for storing the measurement unit and the acceleration sensor; a calculation unit for calculating an earthquake index value showing the magnitude of the earthquake and an inclination based on the initial position of the body part, on the basis of the result of detection by the acceleration sensor; a communication unit for communicating with the outside; a gas meter set in each of the houses of users; and a sensor server for receiving the earthquake index value and the inclination through the communication unit.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an earthquake safety system. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, gas meters equipped with built-in seismometers that are installed at each customer's home are known (Patent Document 1). In the gas security system of Patent Document 1, the seismometer transmits a signal to a monitoring center when the acceleration detected during an earthquake is equal to or greater than a predetermined level. The monitoring center receives signals from the seismometers at each customer's home, and outputs a gas supply stop signal based on the cumulative number of customer's homes where the signal is equal to or greater than the predetermined level. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2003-141660 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, because the seismic sensor sends out a signal when the acceleration reaches or exceeds the above-mentioned predetermined level, for example, the equivalent of a seismic intensity of 5, the monitoring center could only determine for each customer's home whether or not an earthquake equivalent to a seismic intensity of 5 had occurred. As a result, it was difficult for the monitoring center to estimate the damage to each customer's home, and therefore difficult to determine the priorities of restoration work.

[0005] The present invention aims to provide an earthquake safety system that makes it easy to estimate earthquake damage for each customer's home and to determine priorities for restoration work. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The earthquake safety system of the present invention includes a measurement unit that measures gas flowing through a gas appliance, an acceleration sensor that detects acceleration, a main body unit in which the measurement unit and the acceleration sensor are housed, a calculation unit that calculates an earthquake index value indicating the magnitude of an earthquake and a tilt based on the initial position of the main body unit based on the detection results by the acceleration sensor, and a communication unit that communicates with the outside, and is equipped with a gas meter installed in each of a plurality of consumer homes, and a center server that receives the earthquake index value and the tilt via the communication unit.

[0007] According to the present invention, the calculation unit calculates the earthquake index value and the tilt of the main body unit. The center server can more accurately estimate the damage caused by the earthquake for each consumer's home based on the earthquake index value and the tilt of the main body unit received from the gas meter. This makes it easier for the center server to determine the priority of restoration work according to the damage for each consumer's home. This enables the center server to notify the gas supplier of gas meters that require immediate restoration work.

[0008] In the above invention, the center server may determine a priority order for the restoration work of each of the gas meters based on the earthquake index value and the slope.

[0009] According to the above configuration, the priority of restoration work can be appropriately determined based on the earthquake index value and the inclination of the main body.

[0010] In the above invention, the center server may increase the priority of restoration work for the gas meter whose slope is equal to or greater than a threshold value, regardless of the magnitude of the earthquake index value, above the priority of restoration work for the gas meter whose slope is less than the threshold value.

[0011] According to the above configuration, if a gas meter is significantly tilted due to an earthquake, there is a possibility that the customer's home in which the gas meter is installed has suffered significant damage, and restoration work for the gas meter in such customer's home can be carried out as a priority.

[0012] In the above invention, the center server may notify the gas supplier of the gas meters whose priority order is equal to or higher than a predetermined value.

[0013] According to the above configuration, the gas supplier can know which gas meters require immediate restoration work, thereby enabling the gas supplier to promptly perform restoration work on the gas meters. Effect of the Invention

[0014] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an earthquake safety system that makes it easy to estimate earthquake damage for each customer's home and to determine the priorities of restoration work. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0015] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram showing an earthquake safety system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing components of a gas meter in the earthquake safety system of FIG. 1. [Diagram 3] 10 is a diagram for explaining the inclination of a main body of a gas meter. FIG. [Figure 4] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a priority determination logic used when determining the priority of restoration work for each gas meter. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0016] Hereinafter, an earthquake safety system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The earthquake safety system described below is merely one embodiment of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the following embodiment, and additions, deletions, and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0017] Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an earthquake safety system 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing components of a gas meter 13 in the earthquake safety system 100 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a diagram for explaining the inclination of a main body 15 of the gas meter 13.

[0018] As shown in Fig. 1, the earthquake safety system 100 includes a center server 10 and a plurality of customer homes 20. Although Fig. 1 illustrates four customer homes 20, the earthquake safety system 100 may have any number of customer homes 20 as long as the number is more than one, and may be three or less, or may be five or more.

[0019] Each consumer home 20 is provided with, for example, two gas containers 11, a switch 12, a gas meter 13, and two gas appliances 14. Examples of consumer homes 20 include, but are not limited to, hospitals, schools, municipal facilities, nursing homes, ordinary homes, and commercial facilities, and the like. Consumer homes 20 include any building in which gas can be used.

[0020] The gas container 11 is also called a gas cylinder, and is filled with gas such as LP gas (liquefied petroleum gas). In the following description, LP gas is simply referred to as gas. Note that, although the gas supply here is exemplified as supplying gas from the gas container 11 to the gas appliance 14, it may be supplying gas to each consumer's house 20 through a conduit buried underground. The switch 12 switches the gas supply path so that the gas in one of the two gas containers 11 is supplied to the consumer's house 20. As a result, even if one of the two gas containers 11 runs out of gas, the gas in the other gas container 11 can be supplied to the gas appliance 14.

[0021] The gas meter 13 measures the flow rate of gas supplied to the gas appliance 14. The gas meter 13 may include a shutoff valve or the like that shuts off the gas supply path when any abnormality is detected.

[0022] The gas meter 13 has a communication unit 13a. The communication unit 13a has a function of communicating wirelessly with the center server 10. For example, a communication network such as the Internet, a LAN, or LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) can be used as a wireless communication method between the communication unit 13a and the center server 10. The communication unit 13a periodically transmits information on the amount of gas used in the consumer's home 20 to the center server 10 together with date information of the gas used, an ID identifying the consumer's home 20, and location information of the consumer's home 20. Note that the communication unit 13a may not be built into the gas meter 13, but may be configured as an external slave unit and communicate with the gas meter 13.

[0023] The gas appliance 14 is, for example, a gas stove, a gas water heater, a gas fan heater, or the like, but is not limited to these, and the gas appliance 14 includes any appliance that consumes gas.

[0024] The center server 10 has a priority order determination unit 1, a memory unit 2, a notification unit 3, and a communication unit 4. Of the above-mentioned components of the center server 10, the priority order determination unit 1 and the notification unit 3 are functionally realized by a microcontroller including a central processing unit (CPU) and memories (read only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM)) that store programs, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or the like. As the memory unit 2, various types of memories, a hard disk, or the like can be used.

[0025] The priority order determination unit 1 receives information on an earthquake index value (to be described later) and the inclination of the main body 15 of the gas meter 13 sent from each gas meter 13 via the communication unit 4. The processing by the priority order determination unit 1 will be described in detail later.

[0026] The storage unit 2 stores a priority order table Tp (FIG. 4) that is used when the priority order determination unit 1 determines the priority order of the restoration work for each gas meter 13 based on the earthquake index value and the gradient. The priority order table Tp will be described later.

[0027] The notification unit 3 notifies the gas supplier of the gas meters 13 whose priorities determined by the priority order determination unit 1 are equal to or higher than a predetermined value. This allows the gas supplier to know about the gas meters 13 that have a high priority for restoration work.

[0028] 2, in addition to the above-mentioned communication unit 13a, the gas meter 13 includes a measurement unit 13b, an acceleration sensor 13c, a memory unit 13d that stores various data, a calculation unit 13e, and a housing or main body unit 15. In addition to the main body unit 15, the gas meter 13 also includes a pipeline through which the gas measured by the measurement unit 13b flows, a shutoff valve, and the like.

[0029] The measuring unit 13b measures the amount of gas used in the consumer's house 20. Specifically, the measuring unit 13b measures the flow rate of gas supplied from the gas container 11 to the gas equipment 14 in the consumer's house 20. As an example, the measuring unit 13b may be an ultrasonic flowmeter that measures the flow rate from the propagation speed of ultrasonic waves in a pipeline through which the gas flows.

[0030] The acceleration sensor 13c is a known sensor that uses, for example, a piezoelectric element. The acceleration sensor 13c is provided in the main body 15. Specifically, the acceleration sensor 13c can be provided on a control board, which is, for example, a printed wiring board provided in the main body 15. When vibrations such as an earthquake occur, the acceleration sensor 13c detects, for example, acceleration on each of three mutually orthogonal acceleration axes.

[0031] The calculation unit 13e calculates an earthquake index value based on each acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor 13c. The calculation unit 13e can calculate various values ​​that can compare the scale of an earthquake, such as the SI (Spectral Intensity) value, which is generally used as a numerical value indicating the degree of damage to a building, seismic intensity, magnitude, amplitude, or displacement, as the earthquake index value.

[0032] When the gas meter 13 is installed, the acceleration sensor 13c is placed when the gas meter 13 is in an initial position Ps as shown in Fig. 3. The acceleration sensor 13c is placed so that one of the three axes is aligned with the direction of gravitational acceleration when the gas meter 13 is in the initial position Ps. When vibrations such as an earthquake occur, the position of the gas meter 13 may change from the initial position Ps. In Fig. 3, the position of the gas meter 13 that has changed due to vibrations is shown as a tilted position Pz.

[0033] When the gas meter 13 is subjected to vibration, it is tilted to form a tilt (tilt angle) α with respect to the horizontal plane Lh, for example. Accordingly, the acceleration sensor 13c of the gas meter 13 is also tilted by the tilt α. At this time, due to the change in the direction of the acceleration axis related to the gravitational acceleration direction, the acceleration of the acceleration axis of the acceleration sensor 13c detected in the gravitational acceleration direction changes according to the tilt of the acceleration sensor 13c. The calculation unit 13e calculates the tilt α of the acceleration sensor 13c according to the difference between the acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor 13c when the gas meter 13 is in the initial posture Ps and the acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor 13c when the gas meter 13 is in the tilt posture Pz. Note that, although the tilt of the gas meter 13 is illustrated two-dimensionally in FIG. 3, the gas meter 13 may also be tilted three-dimensionally.

[0034] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a priority order determination logic Tp used when determining the priority order of the restoration work for each gas meter 13. As shown in FIG.

[0035] The priority order determination unit 1 of the center server 10 determines the priority order of the restoration work for each gas meter 13 using the priority order determination logic Tp based on the earthquake index value and the gradient calculated by the calculation unit 13e of the gas meter 13. This will be explained in detail below.

[0036] In the priority order determination logic Tp of FIG. 4, the priority order of the restoration work of the gas meter 13 is determined according to the inclination and earthquake index value of the gas meter 13. In detail, in the priority order determination logic Tp, the higher the earthquake index value and the inclination, respectively, the higher the priority order of the restoration work is set. In the priority order determination logic Tp, a plurality of regions P1, P2, P3, P4, and P5 that define the priority order are set. Each region has a range of earthquake index value and a range of inclination. Region P2 has a higher priority order of the restoration work than region P1, and region P3 has a higher priority order of the restoration work than region P2. Similarly, region P4 has a higher priority order of the restoration work than region P3, and region P5 has a higher priority order of the restoration work than region P4. The priority order related to region P5 is the highest.

[0037] The priority order determination unit 1 determines which of the areas P1, P2, P3, P4, and P5 in the priority order table Tp the earthquake index value and the above-mentioned slope value calculated by the calculation unit 13e correspond to, and determines the priority order of the restoration work for each gas meter 13.

[0038] Here, a threshold value K1 is set for the slope in the priority order determination logic Tp. The threshold value K1 is set, for example, in the range of 30° to 45°. The region where the slope is equal to or greater than the threshold value K1 is uniformly set, for example, to P5. That is, if the slope is equal to or greater than the threshold value K1, it is determined that immediate restoration work is necessary, and the restoration work is given the highest priority regardless of the magnitude of the earthquake index value. If the slope calculated by the calculation unit 13e is equal to or greater than the threshold value K1, the priority order determination unit 1 can give the restoration work of that gas meter 13 the highest priority regardless of the earthquake index value.

[0039] The priority order determination unit 1 may give a higher priority to the restoration work of a gas meter 13 whose slope is equal to or greater than the threshold K1, regardless of the magnitude of the earthquake index value, than the priority order of the restoration work of a gas meter 13 whose slope is less than the threshold K1. Furthermore, the priority order determination unit 1 may notify the gas utility of the gas meter 13 whose priority order is equal to or greater than the threshold K1.

[0040] As described above, according to the earthquake safety system 100 of this embodiment, the calculation unit 13e calculates the earthquake index value and the inclination of the main body 15 of the gas meter 13. The center server 10 can estimate the earthquake damage to each consumer's home 20 based on the earthquake index value and the inclination of the main body 15 received from the gas meter 13. This makes it easier for the center server 10 to determine the priority order of recovery work according to the damage to each consumer's home 20.

[0041] (Modification) The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications are possible without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, the following modifications are possible.

[0042] In the above embodiment, the priority order determination unit 1 increases the priority order of restoration work for a gas meter 13 whose slope is equal to or greater than the threshold K1, regardless of the magnitude of the earthquake index value, above the priority order of restoration work for a gas meter 13 whose slope is less than the threshold K1. In addition, the priority order of restoration work for a gas meter 13 whose slope is equal to or greater than the threshold K1 may be further assigned a ranking based on the magnitude of each earthquake index value.

[0043] In the above embodiment, the gas meter 13 transmits information on the flow rate of gas used by the gas appliance 14 in the consumer's house 20 to the center server 10 via wireless communication, but the present invention is not limited to this. The gas meter 13 may transmit information on the flow rate of gas to the center server 10 via wired communication.

[0044] In addition, in the above embodiment, two gas containers 11 and two gas appliances 14 are exemplified, but this is not limited to this, and the number of gas containers 11 may be one or three or more, and the number of gas appliances 14 may be one or three or more.

[0045] Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the gas container 11 is filled with LP gas (liquefied petroleum gas) as an example of a gas, but this is not limited thereto, and the gas container 11 may be filled with other gases such as oxygen. [Explanation of symbols]

[0046] 1 Priority determination section 2 Storage section 3 Notification section 10. Central Server 11 Gas bottles 13 Gas meter 13a Communications Department 13b Measurement section 13c Acceleration Sensor 13d storage section 13e Calculation part 14 Gas appliances 15 Main body 20 Customer house 100 Earthquake Safety System

Claims

1. A measuring unit that measures the gas flowing into the gas appliance; an acceleration sensor for detecting acceleration; a main body in which the measurement unit and the acceleration sensor are housed; a calculation unit that calculates an earthquake index value indicating the magnitude of an earthquake and a tilt of the main body unit based on an initial position of the main body unit based on a detection result by the acceleration sensor; and a gas meter including a communication unit for communicating with the outside and installed in each of a plurality of consumer homes; a center server that receives the earthquake index value and the inclination via the communication unit, The center server increases the priority of restoration work for gas meters whose slope is equal to or greater than a threshold value, regardless of the magnitude of the earthquake index value, above the priority of restoration work for gas meters whose slope is less than the threshold value, and then further ranks the priority of restoration work for gas meters whose slope is equal to or greater than the threshold value based on the magnitude of each earthquake index value.

2. 2. The earthquake safety system according to claim 1, wherein the center server notifies a gas company of the gas meters whose priority levels are equal to or higher than a predetermined value.

Images