Anti-seismic Construction: Top 5 Earthquake Resistant Structures in the World

The numero uno enemy of the construction industry is earthquakes. Seismic activities can demolish years of hard work in a deadly minute. That is why building earthquake resistant structures is so important.

Constructing aseismic buildings is vital for areas where seismic activity is high but you have to build there anyway. It is also mandatory for tall structures, because a slight vibration in the soil may sway the top violently.

Understanding Earthquakes in Construction Industry

Knowing why seismic activities occur and how can they hurt a building is integral to building earthquake resistant structures. Let us look into it in brief below.

How does an earthquake happen

The old saying goes, “know thy enemy.” And so, every civil engineer worth his salt must learn about the reason behind seismic activities. This will help them immensely in building earthquake resistant structures.

The crust of our planet is divided into several “plates”. These are called tectonic plates and they float around. This process is so slow that we can’t feel it. However, the problem occurs when one of these plates touches another.

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Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
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Earthquake Prevention in Construction Industry of India

Earthquakes are among the most devastating of nature’s curses, more scary than anything else because you almost never see it coming. Any country that goes through frequent quakes tries hard to find the solution. India is no exception either. Today, we will look into what is the situation about earthquake prevention in India.

Sitting right on top of one of the major fault lines in the world, the indian subcontinent suffers some of the greatest earthquakes. Those devastating seismic activities in the last century have motivated us to look into scientific solutions to earthquakes. This led to the creation of the first building codes specifically for earthquake resistant housing, in 1935, which were compounded with strengthening guides in 1941.

The Seismic Hazard

Most of the matter inside Earth is molten rock. Lava, that is. This molten sea has currents in it like the sea above, only slower, but just as sure. The hard crust of the earth floats on top of this lava ball. And the plates of the crust move with the lava flow underneath.

The problem is that this movement is not uniform across the world. Some plates move faster in one place and slower in another side. This causes friction and collision between plates. Indeed, one such monstrous collision is what gave birth to the Himalayas. Which incredibly is still going on.

And these frictions are exactly what causes the earthquakes.

As I said above, the worst thing about earthquakes is their unpredictability. We know the geological fault lines, yes, but we have woefully few data about the movement along the lines. So, we get to make next to no prediction about seismic activity, and their magnitude. 

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Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
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Nature of Ground Movement Due to Earthquakes

Earthquakes are terrible natural disasters that occur due to movements in the tectonic plates. The ground moves due to the earthquakes. Since earthquakes can be gentle to violent, the ground movement can be marginal to devastating as a result. This moves the building vertically and horizontally, both of which creates considerable strain on the structure.

Of course, the exact magnitude of the shaking and shifting that a building experiences depends upon how far it is from the epicenter the the quake. Earthquakes create seismic waves that carry through the ground, and they weaken in power as they traverse the distance, finally getting completely absorbed.

The seismic waves travel faster through hard rock and slower through soft soil. However, when it transits from rock to soil, the strength of the wave increases. So, it really doesn’t matter whether you are on soft ground or hard - you will still be hit with considerable power, if you’re close to the center.

Understanding the nature of the waves generally occurring in a location gives rise to plans of how to combat it properly. This gives us knowledge and ways to construct a building properly so that common earthquakes cannot topple it.

There are different types of seismic waves, and they impact a structure differently. In general, they are broadly categorized into two seperate groups - body waves and surface waves.

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Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
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