Maybach: Earthquake Proof Bridge - Engineering Connections

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Earthquake Proof Bridge - Engineering Connections

Rion Antirion Bridge. Greece One of the longest bridges in the world. It crosses some of the
most active earthquake fault lines in Europe. Without some unprecedented engineering, that
bridge would still be a dream. There is no solid bed rock means no solid foundations. The hammock, A fizzy pop can, A toboggan, An incense, A steel chimney.

When the sand particles are shaken, the spaces in between them or the pores that tried to get small. The water in there get squashed and the pressure goes up.

Metal piles driven into the sand. Like incense plant. Vetiver Grass

In an earthquake, the earth moves vigorously from side to side.

Like the snowboard curled up at the front. But making mammoth pier bases curl up that would be virtually impossible to construct. Reverse it. Wind Tunnel, NASA Sound Suppression System. Rather than change the shape of piers, engineers decided to change the surface of the seabed.

Change the seabed from the sand to gravel, it can allow the pillar to move side by side.

Grave seabed can allow piers to move side by side without digging or toeing.

These massive piers are not fixed on the seabed, so they can move and withstand the earthquake.

Just like the hammock, the deck of Rion Bridge is fully suspended from the top of the piers.
Incredibly, as the piers move in the earthquake, the deck swings independently. But their
free-swing solution may create another problem.

But once the object is as big as the deck starting to move, it needed something extraordinary to stop it.

The Viscous Damper. !! Dubai Truss Damper, Taipei 100 Steel Ball !!

The car is free to swing and hit the ground that is like the bridge deck hit the pier.

Sling the road deck like the hammock that allows the bridge deck to move and the viscous dampers stop it from moving too much, so it doesn't hit the arm of the piers and shake itself too much. A flexible bridge is good for withstanding earthquakes but it is bad for the windy day.