Seismic activities affect the buildings in many ways. In the early days, there was no choice for the people to live in houses that can crumble with moderate seismic activity. However, that is not the case today.
With technological advancement, modern industries have developed techniques that can protect buildings from seismic activity.
Seismic activities are nothing but uncontrolled vibrations of the ground. When these vibrations occur, it affects the soil below the building, directly affecting the building’s infrastructure.
Over time, scientists have gathered rough information about the seismic activities and the types of damages it brings to the buildings. The information is now being used to revamp the construction industry to buildings with seismic activity resistance.
Best Seismic Retrofitting Industrial Techniques
The current earthquake retrofitting techniques are more focused on protecting the bundling’s non-structural element so that full-fledged protection can be provided to the building.
However, more attention is given to the new buildings that are being built today. Engineers are making systems that every building that is being created is resistant to earthquakes to some degree.
Here are some of the best Seismic Retrofitting Industrial Techniques that are used today to make buildings.
1. External Post-Tensioning
It is one of the new construction technologies that is giving a new life to modern-day construction. With the help of this technology, engineers add steel tendons to provide additional support to the building.
The best part of these tendons is not the additional support to the infrastructure but a resisting system that can recenter itself after seismic activity.
The steel tendon technology can revamp the bridge and reinforce non-ductile concrete frames. With the use of prestressing techniques, more strength can be added to the steel beams.
2. Base Isolator
The key purpose of a base isolator is to offer necessary insulation in case of seismic activity. With the added insulation, the seismic activity can be nullified, leaving the least amount of damage in the building.
Initially, this technique could have been used for only new buildings, but in the last couple of years, the technology has made it possible to be used for both old and new buildings.
Base Isolator is a revolutionary technology that creates a gap and does not allow the building to contact the ground. This is usually done with the help of steel beans of concrete beams.
Isolation pads are then indeed to completely fill the gap making the base isolator one of the best techniques practiced for seismic activities.
3. Supplementary Dampers
Supplementary dampers do two things at the time of seismic activity. When the seismic activity occurs, all the vibrations are absorbed by the supplementary dampers and convert the motion energy to heat energy.
This process reduces the building structure’s resonance effect, reduces displacement, and accelerates demand within the building. You can even say that supplementary dampers like shock absorbers.
4. Slosh Tanks
Slosh tanks are one of the new techniques that use large water tanks to trap seismic vibration. This technique uses the placement of a large water tank underneath the building to arrest the lateral movement and stop the building’s swaying motion due to seismic activity.
The Slosh tank is designed in such a way that water goes back and forth in the controlled motion countering the swaying motion of the building.
5. Rigid Connection Between Buildings
The rigid connection between two buildings or any additional structure added to the existing building is a widely practiced technique. Usually, the additional structures were not rigidly attached to the main structure. Hence, in the time of seismic activity, both structures resonate differently, damaging each other.
However, the rigid connection between the two buildings helps the building resonate simultaneously, reducing the damage risk.
Conclusion
Seismic activity is quite common in places. Hence, it becomes important to come up with a permanent solution. Over the last decade, the retrofitting industry has seen many changes. As a result, today, various techniques are used to bring out desired results in construction projects.
