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Developing ‘breakaway’ tsunami resistant buildings

Published on October 27, 2017

Photo of a tsunami wave
Image Credit: ​NOAA: Labled for reuse

The best designs can also be the most surprising. A promising new concept for tsunami resistant buildings features breakaway walls and floors on lower levels that, when removed by forceful waves, strengthen the structure and better protect occupants seeking safety on higher floors.

Thanks to a $1 million National Science Foundation Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation grant, CEE faculty will be developing a new structural system to better protect communities during tsunamis. The research project, Vertical Evacuation Structures Subjected to Sequential Earthquake and Tsunami Loadings, will be led by professor and principal investigator Dawn Lehman and co-investigators Michael Motley, Charles Roeder and Pedro Arduino. The researchers bring together expertise in structural earthquake engineering, tsunami engineering and geotechnical earthquake engineering.

Continue reading at UW Civil and Environmental Engineering


Originally posted on UW Civil and Environmental Engineering
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