Audio Transcript:
This Really "Takes the Quake".
I'm Bob Karson with the discovery files -- new advances in science and engineering from the National Science Foundation.
(SOUND EFFECT: earthquake sound) Buildings that can not only stand up to an earthquake, but return to their original structural shape. A team led by researchers from Stanford and the University of Illinois has demonstrated a structural system that could limit the damage of even a magnitude 7 quake to just a few replacement parts.
But let's see what the group brings to the table -- the world's largest shake table in Japan. (SOUND EFFECT: nat sound) This bad boy is a 3000 square foot platform that reproduces the movements of actual earthquakes. The team tested a ¾ scale model of an office building -- incorporating the new design. And jolted it with seismic shocks and shakes recorded from Japan's devastating Kobe quake, and our worst-ever Northridge one -- both just under 7.0 then they kicked it even higher -- to the maximum each fault is ever likely to generate.
This system rocks, no really, the structure is designed to rock at the base and dissipate energy into easily replaceable steel 'fuses'. In the tests, the fuses were the only parts damaged.
When the shaking stops, vertical steel cables stretched during the quake, contract to pull the building back into alignment. The system uses conventional building methods, and can be retrofit into existing buildings.
That's 'what's shakin', baby.
"The Discovery Files" covers projects funded by the government's National Science Foundation. Federally sponsored research -- brought to you, by you! Learn more at nsf.gov or on our podcast.
