Posts Tagged earthquake resistant structures
Earthquake Resistant Structures | Engineering Tips
Posted by Architect in Earthquake Engineering on June 15, 2010
Earthquakes are a major geological phenomena. Man has been terrified of this phenomena for ages, as little has been known about the causes of earthquakes, but it leaves behind a trail of destruction. There are hundreds of small earthquakes around the world everyday. Some of them are so minor that humans cannot feel them, but seismographs and other sensitive machines can record them. Earthquakes occur when tectonic plates move and rub against each other. Sometimes, due to this movement, they snap and rebound to their original position. This might cause a large earthquakes as the tectonic plates try to settle down. This is known as the Elastic Rebound Theory.
Haiti Earthquake 2010
Every year, earthquakes take the lives of thousands of people , and destroy property worth billions. The 2010 Haiti Earthquake killed over 1,50,000 people and destroyed entire cities and villages. Designing Earthquake Resistant Structures is indispensable. It is imperative that structures are designed to resist earthquake forces, in order to reduce the loss of life. The science of Earthquake Engineering and Structural Design has improved tremendously, and thus, today, we can design safe structures which can safely withstand earthquakes of reasonable magnitude.
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Active Control Devices for Earthquake Resistance
Posted by Architect in Earthquake Engineering on June 15, 2010
After development of passive devices such as base isolation and TMD. The next logical steps is to control the action of these devices in an optimal manner by an external energy source the resulting system is known as active control device system. Active control has been very widely used in aerospace structures. In recent years significant progress has been made on the analytical side of active control for civil engineering structures. Also a few models explains as shown that there is great promise in the technology and that one may expect to see in the foreseeable future several dynamic “Dynamic Intelligent Buildings” the term itself seems to have been joined by the Kajima Corporation in Japan. In one of their pamphlet the concept of Active control had been explained in every simple manner and it is worth quoting here.
People standing in swaying train or bus try to maintain balance by unintentionally bracing their legs or by relaying on the mussels of their spine and stomach. By providing a similar function to a building it can dampen immensely the vibrations when confronted with an earthquake. This is the concept of Dynamic Intelligent Building (DIB).
- Active Mass Driver System