Earthquake-Resistant Building Design

This is based on a piece of HW and is my own research..there are lots more you can find out for yourself though! :)

Earthquake Resistant Building Design

Taipei 101

The Taipei 101 is located in Taipei, Taiwan. It started construction in 1999 and was completed in 2004. It is 101 stories above ground and 5 stories below. It is 509.2 meters tall.

1.      The design of this building achieves strength and flexibility through the use of high performance steel construction. Taipei 101 is supported by 36 columns, as well as 8 ‘mega columns’ made with 10,000 psi (pounds per square inch-a unit of pressure) concrete.

2.      Every 8 floors, outrigger trusses connect columns in the building’s core to those on the exterior. This makes it one of the most stable buildings in the world.

3.      The foundation of the Taipei 101 is very strong. It has 380 piles 80 meters deep in the ground, it extends as far as 30 meters into the bedrock. Each pile is 1.5 meters in diameter and can withstand a load of 1,000-1,320 tonnes.

4.      One interesting feature of the Taipei 101 is its steel pendulum. It serves as a tuned mass damper that weighs 660 tonnes. It cost US$ 4 million. It is suspended from the 92^nd to the 88^th floor and can be viewed. It is computer controlled, if the building sways to one side due to strong winds or seismic waves, it goes in the opposite direction. It offsets the movement of the building. This keeps the building balanced and prevents it from being top-heavy and collapsing.

5.      The blue-green glass are double paned and glazed. They offer heat and ultraviolet protection and can block external heat by up to 50%. It can sustain impacts of 7 tonnes.

Tuned Mass Damper

 

Torre Mayor

The Torre mayor is in Mexico City. It started construction in 1999 and was finished in 2003. It has 57 stories and is 225 meters tall.

It uses large Fluid Viscous Dampers as a primary means of seismic energy dissipation. There are a total of 98 dampers, 24 of which are large; each rated at 570 tonnes output force. They are located in the long walls of the building. The short walls have 74 smaller dampers, each rated at 280 tonnes output force. The dampers are installed in mega brace elements, up to 20 meters in length. A single damper can span up to six floors.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/structural/smart-structure.htm

Earthquake Isolated Base Technology

This technique uses a coil or any other flexible support placed in between the structure's foundation. There is a movement interaction with the seismic waves, thus if the earthquake moves the foundation in one direction, the support will move the opposite direction and this confers immobility to the building. Some modern building are incorporated with cross-supports in between frame support, these also hold building together during tremor.

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