Shrinking buildings in Japan: Demolition of structures in urban areas.

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Earthquake engineering: Shock absorving foundations

Fundaciones de estructuras sismo-resistentes

Very short but amazing video, on how new technologies in earthquake engineering have evolved the concept of designing building foundations. To the left you will see a traditional design, with a building that swings together with the shake; to the right, a building where the foundations absorb the shock. Amaaaaaazing technology! A Japanese trademark!

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Waste landfill: Shimizu´s Laterally Navigated Sheet Wall Method (seepage control)

"Rolled-up waterproof sheets are inserted into a soil/cement wall that has been mixed and homogenized with a trencher. The rolls are then unraveled and pulled sideways, to create our vertical seepage control wall. Since this method drastically reduces the number of joints in comparison to previous methods, seepage control performance is greatly enhanced" - Shimizu-Japan (http://greenzonecorporation.webatu.com/environment/pdf/env_2007_e_p5-22.pdf). A sample from the Tohoku Engineering Expo.

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Earthquake engineering: Oil dampers

Ingeniería de sismos

Another sample of the advanced technology used in Japanese buildings (according to my friend, an earthquake engineer, Japanese technology is at the top in the world!!). This is a scale model of an oil damper, used to "articulate" buildings as a countermeasure against earthquakes. The cost? According to the engineers, the installation cost for a skyscraper in Tokyo was expected to be about 220 million USD (hope I am not missing some zeros). This short video is a sample taken from the Tohoku Fair.

Copyrights: All material posted is copyrighted under the conditions detailed under the tab "about this blog". The engineers who were in charge of explaining the model during the fair allowed me to upload the video as long as it is used for educational purposes. It must not be distributed for commercial purposes. All their work is patented. Any comments please mail the manager of this blog.

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Engineering: Soil liquefaction and earthquakes

One of the most severe impacts of earthquakes is soil liquefaction. After having watched a program at NatGEO, I remembered I had this short video on a physical model that I recorded during an Engineering Fair in Tohoku, Japan, back in 2006. The small tubes in the model are manholes. Learn, enjoy while watching the experiment, and find out how harmful liquefaction can be.

Glossary

Liquefaction.- A phenomenon in which the strength and stiffness of a soil is reduced by earthquake shaking or other rapid loading.

Copyrights: All material posted is copyrighted under the conditions detailed under the tab "about this blog". The engineers who were in charge of explaining the model during the fair allowed me to upload the video as long as it is used for educational purposes. It must not be distributed for commercial purposes. All their work is patented. Any comments please mail the manager of this blog.

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