Assignment # 23 Name: Greg Dachtler Period: 6 Date: 2/12/13

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Will My Building Withstand an Earthquake? Architect Frank Lloyd Wright was an innovator in designing buildings that could withstand earthquakes. For example, Wright designed the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, which withstood that citys severe 1923 earthquake with only minor damage. Many modern cities located in earthquake prone areas have enacted building codes designed to reduce damage to structures, thereby reducing the incidents of injury or death. Architects often go beyond these safety codes to ensure public safety. For example, the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco is stronger than required by the citys building code. It also has features built into its base that are designed to dramatically reduce how much the building will sway during an earthquake.

Problem: What design strategies keep structures safe in an earthquake? Hypothesis: If my structure of 20 centimeters tall can withstand an earthquake, then the design strategy of cross bracing will be the most important factor in keeping it safe and minimizing damage. Materials: 40 Toothpicks 5 mini marshmallows or 25 grams of clay Sheet of paper (to build structure on and put names and group number on) Procedure: 1. 2. Make your hypothesis if you havent already done so. On the back or bottom of this sheet, sketch a plan how you and your partner are going to build your structure. How are you going to use the materials? Draw an example of your structure. 3. 4. 5. 6. Have the teacher check and sign off on your drawing. Before you start building get a group number 12. Once the teacher has given you your group number, you may start building your model. After you have finished making your model, fill out the data table for your group below. Place your model on the counter with a piece of paper underneath it and be sure your names and group number are on it. 7. Collect data from all the other groups so that your data table is filled out.

Results: Class Data Table for Period # 6 Group Height of Width of # of Anchored to Low #1 model base cross the paper (yes center of (centimeters) (centimeters) braces or no) gravity Rigid (clay) or Flexible (marshmallow) (choose one) Time lasted on the shake table (seconds)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

22.2 13.7 0.5 22.0 19.5 9.6 13.0 12.0 9.4 15.1 10.5 12.5 14.0 16.2 8.0 16.0

12.9 5.0 7.0 12.0 5.5 6.8 5.9 13.0 6.6 5.9 10.5 5.6 11.0 4.0 7.0 10.5

3 0 1 1 0 0 8 16 1 3 0 0 5 0 4 0

no no no no yes yes yes yes no yes yes no no no no no

no yes no no yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes yes no yes

rigid rigid rigid rigid flexible flexible flexible flexible rigid flexible flexible rigid rigid rigid flexible rigid

1 1 15 15 15 15 15 15 1 15 15 1 1 1 3 1

Observations During the shaking, our structure was not stable enough to withstand the earthquake. It lasted 1 second. 1 toothpick fell off our structure. Our structure was not anchored down to the paper and did fall over during the severe shaking. Our building did not remain intact throughout the severe shaking. My structure did not stay upright.

Conclusion According to the textbook on pages 204-205, base isolators, cross braces, dampers, shear walls, flexible pipes, and tension ties are good design strategies because some let the building move freely, some damp seismic waves, some increase the strength of the building, some transfer energy to the ground, and others tie the building together, which are all things that you need to become seismic safe. In this lab we were testing design strategies that keep structures safe in an earthquake. I hypothesized that if my structure of 20 centimeters tall could withstand an earthquake, then the design strategy of cross bracing would be the most important factor in keeping it safe and minimizing damage. Over the course of 1 second my structure of 12.5cm was destroyed by it falling over. Fifty percent of all the structures lasted the full 15 seconds, and 75% of the structures that survived the 15 seconds were flexible, so it seems that the flexible frame strategy was the most important. In conclusion my hypothesis was incorrect. Flexibility was the most important factor in keeping the structures safe and minimizing damage during an earthquake.