Scientists to create artificial earthquake - Indian Express

PTI : Washington, Fri Aug 02 2013, 11:15 hrs Earthquakes never occur when you need one, so US researchers plan to create an artificial quake in the hope of developing sturdier and safer buildings. A team led by Johns Hopkins structural engineers is shaking up a building themselves in the name of science and safety. Using massive moving platforms and an array of sensors and cameras, the researchers are trying to find out how well a two-story building made of cold-formed steel can stand up to a lab-generated Southern California quake. The testing in New York, marks the culmination of a three-year, USD 1 million research project involving scientists from six universities and design consultants from the steel industry. The work is taking place in the only facility in the US that is capable of replicating an earthquake in three directions beneath a building measuring 50 feet long, 20 feet wide and 20 feet tall. The trials will wrap up in mid-August when the researchers will shake the unoccupied structure with forces comparable to those at the epicentre of the catastrophic 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles, which claimed dozens of lives and caused billions of dollars in damage, researchers said. The results are expected to lead to improved building codes that will make future cold-formed steel buildings less expensive to construct than current ones. The new codes could, in certain cases, make lightweight cold-formed steel buildings less costly to construct than those made of materials such as timber, or hot-rolled steel. In earthquake-prone regions, these code updates should help structural designers and builders reduce the likelihood of a costly and life-threatening building collapse. The research could lead to broader use of building components made of environmentally friendly cold-formed steel, made of 100 per cent recycled steel. Cold-formed steel pieces, commonly used to frame low- and mid-rise buildings, are made by bending sheet metal, roughly one- millimetre-thick, into structural shapes without using heat. ... contd. ALSO READ Motorola unveils Moto X smartphone India requests Twitter to withhold content: transparency report Apple fixing security flaw to prevent hacking in iPhones, iPads India's second moon mission Chandrayaan-2 stuck in limbo Please read our terms of use before posting comments TERMS OF USE: The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s). via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNG9su8RB12OVC0acQF4m2ToSPwP-A&url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/scientists-to-create-artificial-earthquake/1150248/

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