How To Make Earthquake Resistant Building?

How To Make Earthquake Resistant Building?

 Nowadays every building or structure need to be earthquake resistant whether your location is under earthquake prone area or not.

We will discuss about every details about earthquake and how any structure can be earthquake resistant.

1.what is earthquake?

If we take a look at the cross-sectional view of earth then we can figure out that surface of earth consists of many layers and sometimes these plates can slide each other and releases high amount of tension force which causes the movement of tectonic plate and causes shaking of ground.

In simple words,Earthquake is basically movement of ground surface due to sliding of tectonic plates.

Japan and Indonesia(many more) are most prone area to earthquake because these area is located near the edge of oceanic and continental plates.

 Earthquake can be measured by Richter Scale which is numbered from 0-10.where 0 means no earthquake at all and 10 is very high risk of harm.

2.Why we Should Consider Earthquake in Civil Engineering?

In civil engineering,earthquake is a vital factor that can not be avoided.Every building should have designed as per standard code.Actually every location on earth is under zone of earthquake(where zone 1 is less earthquake prone )

lets take an example o understand this-In India there are four zone in which the whole nation is included. where,

1. Zone 2-Low Risk zone
2. Zone 3-Moderate Risk Zone
3. Zone 4-High Risk Zone
4. Zone 5- Very High Risk Zone

About 60 % of total area of India is liable to seismic or earthquake damage.Earthquake can happen anywhere,so a measure of extra ductility and redundancy should be built into the design.

In Engineering point of view every building should be designed in such a way that the building can resist -'one very severe earthquake,one or more large earthquake,some moderate and many small earthquake'.

3.What is 'earthquake resistant building'?

'An earthquake resistant structure'is the one that can resist earthquake or seismic forces without any serious damage to the structure.while it is normal that any building will undergo some damages,the aim of earthquake-resistant building is to minimise that damage as much as possible.

4. 7Things that will make your building earthquake-proof

i.Ductility- 

Ductility refers to a amount of deformation that a object can undergo without failure.

More amount of ductile materials  means more ductility,so that a building can easily withstand an earthquake without any serious damage.

example of ductile material s steel and example of brittle materials are concrete,iron,glass etc.Therefore concrete with reinforced bar is good and steel structures are ideal.     

        

  ii. Rigid frame

        

This frame is a type of unbraced frame,rigid frame can resist lateral and vertical loads due to the rigid connection between beam and column.

A table where leg of table and surface of table is connected by rigid joints,is a example of rigid frame.This type of frame is also good for resisting bending force,shear force and axial loads also.

iii.Uniformity and symmetry-

A building having symmetrical and uniform distribution of strength,mass and stiffness will give more earthquake resistant than others.

Uniformity and symmetrical structure will influence the magnitude and distribution of earthquake force. 

on the other hand if irregular form or asymmetrical design is necessary then special design considerations should be taken as per standard code.

iv.Past record of earthquakes in the region-

The history of earthquakes in the region will give a basic idea about nature of earthquake and Will give more appropriate  ideas that should be implemented.

 This past record is utilised to determine the seismic loading just like the property of structure.

 v.Shape-

shape is also important to determine the loading.In simple words Less number of sides of building means more strong than others which is having more sides.

Therefore triangle shape of building is more suitable than pentagon or square type of building.

vi.Avoid load bearing wall-

 Load bearing walls take the load and transfer to the foundation.As load bearing walls are generally made of bricks(Brick is not a ductile material at all)this can cause a serious damage to the structure.

 vii.Seismic damper- 

In modern day height of building is touching the sky.so in case of skyscraper earthquake design consideration should be high than low rise buildings.

seismic dampers are used mainly in high rise building.

Dampers reduce the magnitude and distribution of shaking caused by earthquake. many types of dampers are used.

most popular among them is Tuned mass damper,hydraulic damper,liquid damper,tuned liquid mass damper,active mass damper etc.                                             

                              image source:Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository

Summary

Thus while designing process earthquake consideration should not be avoided at all.

we should give safety more priority than others.A building should provide safety of people living in it.

we have discussed many factors related to earthquake problem.As a physical physical phenomena earthquake sometimes can be harsh ,so be prepared as much as possible.

I Hope you liked this information about 'how to make a building earthquake resistant?'.
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