An insulator brick against earthquakes – Radio Macondo

Photo provided from the Polytechnic University of Valencia. EFE

A new brick-shaped device can absorb horizontal movements caused by an earthquake and support vertical loads on the building structure, improving its response to earthquakes.

Researchers Institute of Science and Technology of Concrete (ICITECH) of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) have designed this new device, patented as Sisbrick, whose design and components allow seismically isolating the partition from the rest of the building structure.

As explained to EFE ICITECH researcher Francisco Javier Pallares, the key lies in the combination of materials so that a dual behavior is achieved: to absorb horizontal movements due to earthquake and support vertical loads acting on the building structure.

have the form of conventional brick, it can be placed using traditional techniques of construction of partitions, without operations or additional products.

Sisbrick is formed by a matrix whose special formulation gives it properties for seismic isolation searched, to also contribute inserted in its matrix elements, providing it with improved properties for behavior outside the plane.

are already building techniques and bricks

Pallares has pointed out that currently exist in the market and bricks for building and its setting and forms allow better put the pieces together, which could result in more resilient buildings against earthquakes techniques.

However, since a brick partition may or may not exist within a dwelling and its existence is something that largely determines the behavior of the building during an earthquake, conducting more resistant partitions does not resolve the real problem of damages caused. The difference in the behavior of a building between what is calculated and what is built due to the partition

“ Today, seismic calculations performed in project offices only consider the structure of the building and do not consider the partition despite its influence, more than remarkable and studied in the dynamic response of a building when an earthquake “ occurs, he noted .

Against this, the isolator device designed from the ICITECH has been designed from the point of view of a new philosophy, which does not seek to make more resistant partitions that would condition further performance of the building to earthquakes, but allows seismically isolating other partitions of the building structure due to its ability to absorb movements.

“act as a insulating barrier , avoiding the transmission of loads these partition members to the structure; so as not would condition decisively the seismic response of the building, “he added another of the researchers, Luis Pallares.

High absorption capacity of movement

According to tests in laboratories, enclosures built with these devices have a behavior towards closer earthquakes that really is calculated when a building is designed, and have a great ability to absorb movement.

Using a small amount of these devices to build a partition, and the remaining pieces with conventional bricks, in the laboratory have been achieved until movements of the order of three times higher with the use of the “insulating brick” that without it, which greatly reduced stresses supported by the partition.

As for how to apply it in practice, researchers have suggested that it would be necessary to raise the full partitions with this new type of brick, but suffice to apply reduced by following certain schemes of arrangement.

“ ready devices and act as a security system, preventing the transmission of forces between the structure and the walls during the earthquake “remarked Pallares

Source:. EFE