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Invisible Buildings

Posted September 23, 2009 7:57 AM

From Forbes.com: Technology News:

Sebastien Guenneau sees no reason to fight Mother Nature when you can hide from her. The French mathematician has developed an "invisibility cloak," which will protect buildings from the shock of earthquakes. Despite the fact that earthquakes are generally caused by slippage in fault lines deep underground, it is actually the surface shock waves that are most destructive to buildings.

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Guru

Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 1035
Good Answers: 40
#1

Re: Invisible Buildings

09/25/2009 4:53 PM

"Yow!"...

"a series of giant plastic rings buried in the ground around the foundation..." "In the event of an earthquake, these rings would redirect the destructive surface waves around the building, keeping the structure stable and safe. They need to be large. To protect the Eiffel Tower, for example, the radius of the rings would need to range from 30 to 60 meters and they would be about 1 meter thick."

So, the outermost ring, itself, would require a "pour" of 377 cubic meters of ... what-kind-of-plastic-is-it again...?!

And (the article doesn't say), how many ADDITIONAL rings are needed in this "series" of rings (I assume to be "concentric"...from '30-60 meters' out)...?

My Question Is:

Will there be a guarantee on these rings ... like on a motorcycle helmet...?

"Replace after each shock..."

Actually, I could see something like this being tried ~ How 'bout we (CR4) dig a hypothetical trench around the Eiffel Tower, 120 meters diameter and a meter deep.

Now, what shall we "toss-in-it"...?

( somebody associated with this ... experimenting with cement-mixing...maybe)

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