Why Seismic Retrofitting Should Be Done At Apartments

By Peter Fox


Everywhere there is an old building, its damages are not hidden. The crevices and its cracks on its surfaces that makes it look weak and dangerous. One reason why damages on building are often seen is seismic activities. This is the movements below the ground or so called earthquake. The shaking caused by this natural disaster affects the structure of a building and sometimes even destroying it. In addition, the ground or soil where a structure is built can also be deformed making it not a great base for skyscrapers anymore.

Apartment buildings seismic retrofit is a method that protect an infrastructure from such kind of damages. There have been lots of studies made on structures especially apartment to have it more resistant to hazards. This is not only used to protect from earthquake but as well as cyclones, tornadoes and more.

Countries that is surrounded by tectonic plates are often prone to earthquakes due to the constant movements of plates below the ground. Usually homes and apartments are mostly affected of these ground movements because its structure is weak and often made with just light materials. Every year, there are numerous total of homes that are ruined because of seismic activities.

This method was initiated during late nineties in some countries. Though, during that time the details were not that modified and detailed yet. It was just simple and basic but not totally helps an apartment or house from the shaking. After that, there were so many studies in the architecture that created various ideas on how to promote seismic protection.

Because of that, there were number of seismic protection that was created and used as a technique on making sure that structures are capable of standing even through a disaster. The first one is called strengthening. It is adding cross braces within the building to add capacity, in addition there were also structural walls that was built.

These braces hold tight grips of some parts that is considered to be the weakest. In Japan, buildings are often with steel tendons, these are high strength and is has moment resisting capacity. This method is one of the few techniques that was used when the idea of retrofitting started to get acknowledged by different countries. In California, there was actually a bridge that used the same system.

Next technique is known, supplementary damping. This uses a base isolation system which means it is the soil that serves as base that is made capable of supporting the entire infrastructure. The protection is down below and not on the actual apartment. The vibration is absorbed by the ground so that the shaking on the higher parts is reduced.

Dampers convert the energy it absorbs into heat lessening the acceleration on top parts of an infrastructure. The displacement is also reduced, due to that damages are lesser when using damping method. Dampers are somewhat like shock absorbers.

When choosing the materials in building a house or apartment, choosing high capacity elements or materials is also means of ground movement protection. Individual components should be stiff and have strong strength so it would not be easily affected when there is ground movements. Some old structures should have selective upgrade on which components are supposed to be strengthen more.




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