Earthquakes 2
What can be done to stop buildings falling over
in an earthquake?
The simple answer is - nothing!
Earthquake-proof Buildings
After massive earthquakes, such as near Japan
one wonders if it’s possible to build an
earthquake-proof building. The answer is ‘yes’
and ‘no’.
There are engineering techniques that can be
used to create a very solid structure that will
endure a modest or even a strong quake.
However, during a very strong earthquake, even
the best engineered building may suffer severe
damage. Engineers design buildings to withstand
as much sideways motion as possible in order to
minimise damage to the structure and
give the occupants time to get out
safely.
Buildings are designed to support a vertical
load in order to support the walls, roof and all
the stuff inside to keep them standing.
Earthquakes present a lateral, or sideways, load to the building structure which is more complicated to account for.
One way to make a simple structure more
resistant to these lateral forces is to
tie the walls, floor, roof, and
foundations into a rigid box that
holds together when shaken by a
quake. This picture shows a stainless steel
wall tie, which literally binds together
the outer and inner wall. This keeps
both the cavity (gap) regular and
increases the strength of the wall.
Steel cross-bolts
which give flexibility to building
whilst still allowing tremendous
strength.
The most dangerous building construction, from an earthquake point of view, is unreinforced brick or concrete block. Generally, this type of construction has walls that are made of bricks stacked on top of each other and held together with mortar. The roof is laid across the top. The weight of the roof is carried straight down through the wall to the foundation. When this type of construction is subject to a lateral force from an earthquake the walls tip over or crumble and the roof falls in like a house of cards. Just like a normal house.
Buildings made traditionally, with rigid structures, which allow no movement either horizontally or vertically, always suffer badly in the event of an earthquake. Lateral movement ability allows a building to move a little with the earthquake and suffer less damage.
Construction techniques can have a huge impact
on the death toll from earthquakes. An
8.8-magnitude earthquake in
Chile in 2010 killed more than
700 people. On January 12,
2010, a less powerful earthquake, measuring
7.0, killed more than
200,000 in Haiti.
The difference in those death tolls comes from
building construction and technology. In Haiti,
the buildings were constructed quickly and
cheaply. Chile, a more rich and industrialised
nation, adheres to more stringent building
codes.
Skyscrapers
As the buildings get bigger and taller other
techniques are employed such as “base isolation.” During the past 30 years, engineers have
constructed skyscrapers that float on systems of
ball bearings, springs and padded cylinders.
Acting like shock absorbers in a car, these
systems allow the building to be decoupled from
the shaking of the ground.
Base isolation - where the building is not even ‘on the ground’ - it’s on massive rubber balls.
Another technique to dampen the swaying of a tall building is to build in a large (several tons) mass that can sway at the top of the building in opposition to the building sway. Known as “tuned mass dampers”, these devices can reduce the sway of a building up to 30 to 40 percent. The Taipei 101, formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, has just such a giant pendulum mounted between the 88th and 92nd floors. Weighing 730 tons and capable of moving 1 1⁄2 m in any direction, it takes the prize as the world’s largest and heaviest building damper. In fact, it is so heavy that it had to be constructed on site because it is too heavy to be lifted by a crane.
As the building’s structure moves to the left or right, the vast sphere is moved in the opposite direction to counterbalance the movement, and keep the building in a stable position.
There are also smaller ‘tuned mass dampers’ located in the tip of the spire which daily
help against movement cause by winds.
The counterweight inside the tower weighs 660 tonnes and is able to steady the structure in bad weather conditions. The most the sphere has had to move is 100 cm, in 2015.