Monday, February 22, 2021

How to Make Your Home Safe from Natural Calamity

*This is a sponsored post written by me for ces4. All opinions are mine alone.

If you live in an area with a high seismic activity level, you've probably experienced at least several minor earthquakes before. The feeling can be unsettling, and it can take you entirely off guard. Although you may know the dangers of such a natural occurrence, you still may not have a safety plan or even a clear idea of how to respond. Hardly any home alarm system will protect you from natural disasters in the world, to alert you that something is wrong. Many of the major risk zones for earthquakes have at least one or more major cities within their boundaries, people simply assume that their houses, apartment buildings, office buildings, and other frequented areas have been made safe for earthquakes. 

Seismic retrofitting is the improvement of existing structures to prevent and respond to seismic events, ground motion, or soil collapse due to earthquakes. The need for seismic retrofitting is well recognized with a deeper understanding of seismic demand on structures and with the recent experiences with major earthquakes near urban centers. To achieve resistance to seismic activity or soil collapse due to earthquakes, earthquake engineering can be consulted for seismic retrofitting of structures requiring modification of existing structures. Retrofit is now widely practiced, especially in the active seismic regions. It is done by the inclusion of structural changes that can prevent seismic waves from harming structures, individuals, and equipment. For bridges, overpasses, tunnels, and houses, retrofitting may be necessary for seismic zones. While new construction will require seismic requirements to be adhered to.

On concrete masonry, unreinforced masonry, soft story, and concrete tilt-up building, seismic retrofitting can be executed. Soft story architecture is a multi-story building with abundant open space and tilt-up construction in concrete. The panels that form the walls of the frame are filled with concrete. Seismic retrofitting may be required because the concrete tilt-up walls are usually high. Preventing the isolation of the roof from the building walls is the motive for the concrete tilt-up retrofit. 

There are many seismic retrofitting types, and their existence depends on the reason for which the retrofit is carried out. The primary type is the retrofit to public safety requiring structural strengthening to save human life, while some degree of injury is appropriate. This retrofit is carried out on buildings that are not very costly and for which a complete reconstruction is not needed. A lower-level retrofit can be set to ensure the structure's earthquake endurance with some required repairs after the earthquake. For buildings that are significant for cultural, historical, or other purposes, a comprehensive retrofit may be appropriate. Mostly, retrofit is carried out with an inappropriate earthquake vibration frequency on buildings that are heavily elevated. Roads also have a retrofit priority because their operation is necessary to ensure the function of emergency services after an earthquake.

Various methods are used for structural seismic retrofitting. Their selection is based on the retrofit purpose, structure type, conditions of the soil, and the expenses involved. Through appropriate structural modifications, seismic retrofitting of buildings can reduce earthquake damage, but no technique can fully eliminate the risk of seismic waves. To maintain the buildings secure, reinforcement of the buildings by the use of girders and trusses is usually introduced. To decouple the structure from the shaking field, base isolators are used, thus achieving seismic vibration power. Supplementary dampers mitigate the resonant effects of the system, improve energy dissipation and reduce structure displacement. The use of absorbers and baffles to keep the building stable from an earthquake requires other retrofit techniques. 

These are the background information to reinforce, regain, and stabilize your home, buildings, and other structural space against possible destruction from natural calamities. 







7 comments:

  1. FOrtunately earthquales are one of the few naatural calamities that we don't have often where I live. So I didn't know all of this about seismic retrofitting. Thank you for sharing!

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  2. I've never been to a place has this or had earthquake but this will help people who get it. Thank you for sharing!!

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  3. Awesome tip. I live in Japan and we get earthquakes here in Aichi once every season. Building codes are super strict here and they are updated every few years, so I am hope I am safe.

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  4. Luckily I am not living in an area high in seismic activity level, but retrofit technique seems really useful and people should have it on affected areas.

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  5. We don`t want any calamities to ruin our homes but they are unavoidable. thanks for these tips. It`s always goo to feel safe and protect our homes from calamities

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  6. very useful post for many people. I can't fully relate as I live in the apartment building but it looks very useful and thought through. I wanted to complement your work

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  7. We don't get much of the natural calamities here however the cyclones are pretty common these are amazing tips one can use to make safe house

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