Concrete connection helps buildings bend during earthquakes

A new construction device could protect vital infrastructure such as bridges, hospitals and power stations from the destructive force of earthquakes, researchers have claimed.

Important public services must keep operating after earthquake emergencies, said the team from the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain, but too often structural damage stops work or requires costly repairs.

To tackle the issue, the researchers combined two “symbiotic” elements to create a Smart Seismic Concrete Connection – bars of shape-memory metal alloys, which, unlike steel, recover their shape after stretching or bending, and high-performance concretes developed at the university.

The device is designed to improve the connection between structural materials in buildings. The creation allows structures to recover their original shapes after earthquakes without major repairs or economic losses.

Patented by the university, the connection is reportedly easy to install, requires little maintenance and – unlike other systems, such as giant pendulums in Asian skyscrapers – does not need additional space, fitting inside columns, beams and walls.

Builders would place the connections in strategic areas throughout buildings, said the researchers. “Our philosophy is not constructing more solid structures, rather the contrary,” said researcher José Luis Bonet Senach. “The wind splits a trunk, but a reed is flexible enough to bend, adapt to movement and recover its position when the wind stops blowing, without suffering damage and splitting.”

The concrete connection could also be installed in crowded places such as sports stadiums or shopping centres, and residential developers could include it to add safety and reduce potential repair costs.