Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

For my Science fair project I have been working with testing how supports help keep a model building stable on a shake table. I was wondering if you could give me some info on structural support such as "how does supports on buildings help keep the building stable in real life in earthquakes." Thank you!

That's a really fun topic and I'm sure you've had a lot of fun so far with both the successful designs and the failed ones. I took your phrase "how does supports on buildings help keep the building stable in real life in earthquakes" and put it in Google and came up with many really nice websites. Like anything in a search engine result you have to be careful to weed out the questionable sources, but there were quite a few on just the first page that were very good. You'll find discussions of ball bearing mounts that go between the structure and the ground, for instance. Flexibiliy is key as well - it's better to have the building bend back and forth than be too rigid.

I worked at Citicorp years ago and often had lunch at the Citicorp skyscraper in Manhattan. That building used a technology called a tuned mass damper to help manage swaying in strong winds and earthquakes. As you read through websites on what people have done to protect against earthquakes you'll find that and a whole bunch of interesting solutions.

Howard

Hello austin15bill,

There are several projects listed on this website that appear to be related to your project. Links to a couple of them are listed below. Each of these has several references in the bibliography that may contain useful information on structural supports for earthquakes.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p013.shtml

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p012.shtml

I hope this helps. Please ask again if you have more questions.

A. Norman