QUAKES DON'T TAKE LIVES, BUILDINGS DO

Starting From stone age days to stepping into the 21st century, Taking shelter in a small cave to living in a luxurious Skyscraper, Civilization has evolved a lot. With all the technical advancement, we are capable of doing things, which were beyond the scope of our imagination a century ago. Despite all this development, we still can’t conquer natural disasters. Earthquakes are one of the most devastating forces, in which the seismic waves traveling through the ground can annihilate buildings, take lives, properties, and can cost a tremendous amount of money and resources to restore normalcy.

Why Does The Building Collapse?

Buildings are generally prepared to handle vertical forces from their weight and gravity, they cannot handle side-to-side forces transmitted by earthquakes. This flat load during quakes vibrates floors, columns, bars, and the connectors that hold them together. The difference in movement between the foot and top of buildings creates extraordinary stretch, causing the supporting outline to crack and the whole structure to break down.

How Can We Tackle it?

Earthquake-resistant or aseismic structures are planned to secure buildings to a few or more prominent degree from seismic tremors. Whereas no structure can be completely immune from the damage of seismic tremors, the objective of earthquake-resistant construction is to erect structures that fare way better amid seismic action than their customary counterparts. 
Some of the efficient techniques are -
       1. Base isolation method
       2. Creating a protective shield around the foundation
       3. Counter Forces with Damping

Base Isolation Method



Instead of directly connected to the foundation, in this process, the structure stands isolated from the ground on the top of flexible bearing pads. When an earthquake hits, only the base moves whereas the entire structure remains unfaltering. The flexible bearing pads are made up of steel, rubber, and lead.

Creating A Protective Shield Around The Foundation




The shield is often referred to as “SEISMIC INVISIBILITY CLOAK”. This advancement includes making a cloak of 100 concentric plastic and concrete rings in and burying it at least three feet underneath the establishment of the building. As seismic waves enter the rings, they are constrained to move through the external rings for less demanding travel. As a result, they are scattered away from the building and dissipated into the plates within the ground.

Counter Forces With Damping

It can be achieved in two ways 

1.Vibration Control System-



This method includes setting dampers at each level of a building between a column and beam. Each damper comprises of piston heads interior a barrel filled with silicone oil. When a quake happens, the building exchanges the vibration energy into the pistons pushing against the oil. The energy is changed to heat, scattering the drive of the vibrations, which makes the structure unharmed.

2..Large Pendulum damping-




It is largely used in skyscrapers. Engineers suspend a huge ball with steel cables with a framework of hydraulics at the top of the building. When the building starts vibrating, the ball acts as a pendulum and moves in a direction inverse to the direction of the vibration of the building. Like damping, these highlights are tuned to coordinate and counteract the building’s frequency during the earthquake.



WRITTEN BY - MIHIR PANDA

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