Technological Advancements :: essays papers

Technological Advancements On November 7, 1940 the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was hit by winds of up to 40mph. The bridge began to twist and flutter. Some cables snapped and a six-hundred foot section of the bridge fell into Puget Sound. ^Wind is but one disaster, earthquakes are another^ (Jay Stuller 36). Disasters like this one and others could have been avoided if the proper precautions had been taken. Due to the disasters in the world the structures of today and tomorrow are much safer. Today most of these catastrophes are avoided because of the up to date technology, like architecture, predicting the disasters before hand and new techniques used by emergency rescue teams. Some major advances in today^s buildings include such things like the material used. For instance products like steel-reinforced concrete (refer to diagram 3-1), steel framing, and properly braced wood frames for houses are a few examples of how buildings are being retrofitted and new buildings are being built towards protection from disasters. As well, the foundations of the buildings can be built on shock absorbing ^base isolators^ containing springs or alternating layers of steel plates and rubber, to counteract the effects of earthquakes. In Japan architectures have been keeping mind earthquakes while designing and building structures. Unfortunately the buildings were mainly designed to withstand a vertical force. The Japanese buildings were designed to withstand a certain acceleration force, but in January 1995, an earthquake hit the city Kobe devastating the buildings, which were thought to be safe. It just shows, ^that building design criteria are crucial to withstanding effects of earthquakes^ (Gerad Baker 12). The normal Japanese wooden houses that had heavy roofs collapsed, and also newer homes were demolished, as seen on diagram 3-2. This could have been avoided by building the houses with lighter plywood frames with crossbars that distribute force evenly rather than houses with heavy timber walls that collapse under force. As well the materials used to build the structures has a great deal to do with the survival rate of buildings. The use of reinforced concrete is thought to be a major reason why buildings stay intact. It is possible to reinforce older buildings with extra concrete simply and effectively, which has been done in California since 1989. Bridges, a totally different aspect of building, but a very similar method for creating sound structures. During the Kobe earthquake the Hanshin expressway collapsed on its side for a stretch of 600m (pictures seen on page 5). This type of roadway is built upon reinforced concrete pillars. There is steel inside the pillars to increase its ability to bend and flex with the