Thursday, March 3, 2011

Unsafe building

Buildings with foundations resting on unconsolidated landfill and other unstable soils are at increased risk of damage.When an earthquake occurs in a populated area, it may cause deaths and injuries and extensive property damage.Entry into damaged unsafe buildings as soon as possible is often necessary for a variety of emergency reasons, including search and rescue, building stabilization and repair, and salvage and retrieval of possessions.We must all work together in our communities to apply our knowledge to enact and enforce up-to-date building codes, retrofit older unsafe buildings, and avoid building in hazardous areas, such as those prone to landslides.
For buildings considered stable, wait times depend on the main shock magnitude and the duration of occupancy, as both of these factors affect the probability of a large aftershock occurring during the period of occupancy.Because the aftershock hazard diminishes with time, it is possible to determine in general when the risk of entering
an UNSAFE building, for a given period of time, reaches an acceptable level.Cold-formed steel has become a popular building material for commercial and industrial buildings.Slices of cold-formed steel, which is normally used for braiding low and medium high-rise buildings, are made by bending sheet metal approximately one millimeter thick, without heating, the structural forms. These components are usually easier and cheaper than traditional construction systems and have other advantages. For example, pieces of cold-formed steel are more homogeneous than the wooden components and does not possess the sensitivity of the termite and wood rot.Structural engineers who designed the building from cold-formed steel should provide more data on how the material will behave during an earthquake.
We must also look for and eliminate hazards at home, where our children
spend their days, and where we work. And we must learn and practice what to do if an earthquake occurs.

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