| When considering building your structure, whether | | | | found it was the most effective approach." Using |
| it is a house or a multi-story office building, an | | | | such pseudo-core system reduces size perimeter |
| owner, architect, engineer, and contractor should | | | | of structural columns. |
| consider the "earthquake prone structures". The | | | | Precast Shear Walls in Seismic Zones |
| reason for this is: knowing the weak buildings | | | | A new way for designing precast concrete shear |
| ("earthquake prone structures") and their | | | | wall in high seismic zones has been introduced in |
| materials will help to make wise decision to build | | | | the 2003 edition of "Recommended Provisions for |
| that future project in mind. Let us know look in to | | | | Seismic Regulations for New Buildings and Other |
| the "right way" of building... | | | | Structures" produced by the National Earthquake |
| Structural Frame | | | | Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). The system |
| Apart from what we have in our structures | | | | features a no emulative design of precast, |
| today, a research was done by structural | | | | prestressed shear walls that have distinct |
| engineer Englekirk Partners of Los Angeles, | | | | advantages during an earthquake. This new |
| analyzing this study, by the name of C4 (for the | | | | system is built on previous knowledge of shear |
| state's Carpenter/Contractor Cooperation | | | | walls capability of withstanding seismic activities by |
| Committee), the reinforced moment frames | | | | what's called "tuning", jointed walls to lengthen the |
| designed rigid at beam-column connections and | | | | structural period and reduce the design base |
| flexible in beam or column mid-span, Englekirk | | | | shear forces. Vertical unbounded post-tensioning |
| developed structural core of moment-resisting | | | | to resist overturning in the wall system is used |
| columns and beams that can withstand seismic | | | | instead of limiting lateral loads. For panel to panel |
| forces. For general information, the mid-spands | | | | connections, the elastic capacity of the |
| act as hinges within the steel reinforcement, | | | | post-tensioning system works quite well in such |
| allowing a structural frame core to move a little | | | | events... |
| during an earthquake. "It has no conventional | | | | "Earthquake prone structures" was part of the |
| core," said Lawrence Ho, an Englekirk principal. "It's | | | | research that the owner, who is considering |
| a moment frame pulled to the core of the | | | | building-especially in high seismic zones, must |
| structure, which is not a very traditional design. | | | | consider before choosing structural methods and |
| But once we compared it to shear wall and | | | | materials... |
| dual-moment framed/shear wall systems, we | | | | |