Technological Advancements :: essays papers

Technological AdvancementsOn November 7, 1940 the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was hit by winds of up to40mph. The bridge began to twist and flutter. Some cables snapped and asix-hundred foot naval division of the bridge fell into Puget Sound. Wind is still one disaster, earthquakes ar other (Jay Stuller 36). Disasters resembling this one and others could have been avoided if the properprecautions had been taken. Due to the disasters in the piece thestructures of today and tomorrow atomic number 18 much safer. Today most of thesecatastrophes are avoided because of the up to date technology, likearchitecture, predicting the disasters before hand and new techniquesuse by emergency rescue teams. Some major advances in todaysbuildings include such things like the material used. For instanceproducts like steel-reinforced cover (refer to diagram 3-1), steelframing, and properly braced wood frames for houses are a few examplesof how buildings are existence retrofitted and new buildings ar e beingbuilt towards protection from disasters. As well, the foundations ofthe buildings can be built on shock absorbing base isolatorscontaining springs or alternating layers of steel plates and rubber, to retard the do of earthquakes.In Japan architectures have been keeping mind earthquakes agedesigning and building structures. Unfortunately the buildings weremainly designed to withstand a vertical force. The Japanese buildingswere designed to withstand a certain acceleration force, but in January1995, an earthquake hit the city Kobe devastating the buildings, whichwere feeling to be safe. It just shows, that building design criteriaare crucial to withstanding effects of earthquakes (Gerad Baker 12).The normal Japanese wooden houses that had heavy roofs puckerd, andalso newer homes were demolished, as seen on diagram 3-2. This couldhave been avoided by building the houses with lighter plyboard frameswith crossbars that distribute force evenly rather than houses withheavy tim ber walls that collapse under force. As well the materialsused to build the structures has a wide deal to do with the survivalrate of buildings. The use of reinforced concrete is thought to be amajor reason why buildings catch intact. It is possible to reinforceolder buildings with extra concrete simply and effectively, which hasbeen through with(p) in California since 1989. Bridges, a totally differentaspect of building, but a very similar method for creating soundstructures. During the Kobe earthquake the Hanshin motorway collapsedon its side for a stretch of 600m (pictures seen on page 5). This faceof roadway is built upon reinforced concrete pillars. There is steel at heart the pillars to increase its ability to bend and flex with the