Earthquake Test- Building Better Homes -- Improving Structural Engineering with Earthquake Simulator

Improving Structural Engineering with Earthquake Simulator January 1, 2007 — To develop designs that can survive extreme seismic events, and to devise retrofit solutions for older homes, civil engineers who specialize in structural design test realistic models of homes in earthquake simulators. They place the homes on two adjacent shake tables designed to move in three directions, creating realistic earthquake motions. Cameras and accelerometers measure the rate of movement. BUFFALO, NY -- Homes are made to withstand the test of time. But the ultimate test is one that can survive a large-scale earthquake. And simulating an earthquake in a lab helps improve homes in real quake zones. Most people don't ever want to experience an earthquake. "I experienced a very strong earthquake in 1997 in Athens," Ioannis Christovasilis, an Earthquake Structures Graduate Student at University at Buffalo in NY, tells DBIS. "I was a little bit frightened, yes." University at Buffalo Structural Engineer Andre Filiatrault says, "We had an aftershock, maybe a magnitude five ... That was pretty dicey. You felt the shaking work up." But today, Filiatrault is eager to watch an earthquake simulator shake this house to a magnitude 6.7 quake. The full-scale, fully furnished home is built like many in earthquake zones, but prone to damage. The test shows how much shaking a wood home can endure. Filiatrault says, "We shook this building past its so-called design level. We shook it to an extreme event ...

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Structural Steel Detailing - A Steel Building Construction Boon

Steel building construction has gained more and more attention of construction industry nowadays as the number of benefits that these buildings provide is much higher than other buildings. Steels building construction is highly served by a wonderful process called "structural steel detailing". It really is a special boon as far as building construction is concerned.

Structural detailing - a standard process for better and more effective buildings construction can be defined as a process of producing detailed working drawings related with steel- fabrication and steel- erection. These detailed drawings contain valuable information such as detailed working drawings and design plans, construction drawings and other building documents. All these information is very much necessary for the construction and erection of steels members that are widely used in the construction of buildings like residential, commercial and industrial buildings.

Now talking about steels members, they are fundamental building components such as columns, beams, braces and trusses, handrails, stairs, joists and metal decking. Every small important information regarding these members are covered in detailing process. Structural detailing illustrates the common structural shapes in use and how these shapes are joined to form members and complete building structures.

Also structural detailing mainly focuses on detailing practices and building member conventions. One of the limelight features of structural- detailing is that it thoroughly explains detailing information for standard sections, steel bolts and welds. This enables builders to clearly visualize their proposed building structure and develop an effective construction technique for further construction activities. Structural -detailing also clarifies certain important aspects such as where and how to erect the fabricated members. These detailing drawings typically demonstrate dimensioned detailing plans to builders, contractors to locate the building elements.

So from above, it is quite clear that structural- detailing can surely be considered as a construction boon due to its wide range of utilities and importance.

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