ICC News

Experts Work to Create Earthquake-Proof Structure

[Source: http://www.coloradoan.com | September 22, 2008]

John W. van de Lindt's job is to shake things up.

A civil engineering professor at CSU, van de Lindt has joined four other universities in a project to help create an earthquake sound structure for building and houses.

The project's goal is to create a structure that a six- or seven-story building can sit on and remain unscathed after even the worst earthquake.

The structure, which acts as the foundation of the building, is built using pendulum sliders and allows the entire house to move back and forth without shaking and crumbling, to put it in layman's terms.

"It reduces the acceleration of the Earth by 300 percent," van de Lindt said. "You could probably put a glass of water in there, and it wouldn't spill."

Van de Lindt conducted a shake-table test on Friday to assess the system using a two-story home built to half-scale. He simulated three historic earthquakes.

"The whole building rocks with the same motion no matter how hard we shake it," he said.

This is one of four tests van de Lindt and others are conducting around the world as part of a four-year study.

The project kicked-off with a $1.37 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a new design approach for wood-frame buildings in earthquake-prone areas.

Colorado State University completed one test in 2006, along with another at the State University of New York-Buffalo. The final test will occur next summer in Japan with a seven-story, 17,000-square-foot building.

"This study will give people in the high seismic zones another option," said Hongyan "Sueellen" Liu, a civil engineering doctoral student who helped design the project.

Liu said she became interested in the project because she came from a country where it was not uncommon to see earthquakes tear buildings apart.

"This study can help reduce damage and save people's lives," she said.

 

[Original Release: http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200809220505/NEWS01/809220319]


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