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Chile’s new methods for earthquake resistant structures

Thursday, 31 December 2015 1:38 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 01 January 2016 8:08 PM ]

Chilean engineers come up with new methods to protect buildings from earthquakes.

Chilean engineers come up with new methods to reinforce buildings and protect them from earthquakes. Architects believe the measures can greatly minimize damage in regions where many earthquakes happen.

Chile is located on the Pacific Ocean's "Ring of Fire", where volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur frequently. The country has learned several key lessons from an 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck in 2010.

One of the methods is base isolation, which involves separating the building from its substructure and rest on flexible pads known as base isolators. This method reduces the potential damage by 80 percent.

The other method is called energy dissipation, that includes passing the energy of an earthquake onto specialized devices. These devices reduce the dynamic response of the structure caused by an earthquake and reduce the potential damage by 40 percent.

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