Background Research

My project is buildings that can withstand an earthquake. I will be looking at what happens to the earth during an earthquake and what happens to buildings. I will then look at different ways buildings can be built in order to withstand earthquakes. The main idea is finding different ways of building structures that will have limited to no damage from an earthquake.

So far I have found that there are different methods depending on the type of building. For houses you can use isolators or reinforced foundations. For midrise buildings you can use reinforced foundations and more support in the walls. For highrise buildings you can use a counter weight so that the building sways without being pushed too far an any direction. Roofs need to be strong enough to not move a lot, but they cannot be too heavy.

I will be using seismic measurments to see how big of an earthquake a building can withstand. Seismic measurements are out of a 10.0 scale called the Richter Scale. This scale means that if it goes any higher than what it takes to be at 10.0 then it will be 10.0. There is no limit to how strong it is, there is a limit to when it comes to the scale though.

This project helps society because many people live in earthquake prone areas and they need to know how buildings need to be built in order to reduce structural damage. The main cause of death in earthquakes in buildings falling. If you can limit the number of buildings that fall or make them all to where they won't you will greatly reduce the number of deaths in an earthquake. For example California is on a fault line. If you could make all buildings in California to where an earthquake would do little or no damage to them, then you would have a lot less people die than in previous fatal earthquakes in the area. It could also help find inexpensive ways to make buildings earthquake proof for areas of the world that have earthquakes, but not a lot of money. Many places in the world are like this. The people in those countries need ways to protect themselves in earthquakes. If some inexpensive methods work, then they could be helped in earthquakes.

The main principle of the project is magnitude. The magnitude of an earthquake is the measure of how strong the earthquake is. The higher the magnitude, the stronger the shaking. If there is stronger shaking, then the buildings are more likely to be damaged. I am trying to find a way to prevent structural damage to buildings during an earthquake. The other principle is the Richter Scale. It is the scale on which earthquakes are measured. It is important because it is scale I will be using for measurements. I will use it so i can explain how strong of an earthquake I am simulating. It will help me to explain what strength of earthquake a life size building identical to what I build would survive.

In an earthquake, the ground moves side to side. This causes things above the ground to shake including buildings. If you can get the building to do something other than shake, then you will be able to limit the damage to the building. The horizontal shaking of the building leads to crumbling and breaking. With the buildings I plan to make with my project, the horizontal shaking would not happen, so the building would not crumble and break.