Steel Wall for Quake-proof Construction
Engineers from UC Berkeley, USA and the construction industry unveiled a prototype of a new kind of steel wall that is three times stronger than wood-framed walls and has the potential to dramatically lower the cost of earthquake-resistant, multi-unit housing. The new wall consists of corrugated steel plates fastened to thin, light galvanized steel studs. Designed as an alternative to wood-frame panels, it can be built in sections in a factory or on the job site. Engineers designed it to resist shear, the push force that causes much of the devastation in a hurricane or major quake. Lack of shear strength can knock a building off its foundations or damage it so badly the owner faces a huge cleanup job and repair bill. The technology, designed and tested at Cal with funding by the Charles Pankow Foundation, is nonproprietary and the research results are publicly available. Plywood is the typical material used to brace new residential buildings and retrofit old ones. The new metal wall does the job, only much better in some cases and for only marginally more cost. Contact details: Bozidar Stojadinovic Associate Professor 727 Davis Hall #1710 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of California Berkeley, CA 94720-1710 USA Tel: (510) 643-7035 Fax: (510) 643-8928 E-mail: boza@ce.berkeley.edu
Sector: Disaster Management and Mitigation
Country: India
Area of Application: Housing, Earthquake prone regions
Keywords: Quake-proof, Housing
Advantages: Low cost of materials and ease of mass production in sections.
Environmental aspects: Not Applicable
Development Status: Commercial Prototype
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Transfer Terms: Consultancy , Technical Services , Others
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Contact Person: UN-ESCAP/APCTT
Address: C-2 Qutab Institutional Area
City: New Delhi
Country: India
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