Tall buildings (> 40 floors) are one of the safer places to be in an earthquake.
1) They're engineered.
2) They're already designed for side loads from wind.
3) Their fundamental frequency is well lower than the peak of the earthquake spectrum, so they don't amplify the motion. Good rule of thumb is that period = floors/10, so fo a 50 story building you're looking at a 5 second period. Earthquakes have most of their energy in ~1 second period waves. So effectively, the base wiggles and the top just floats along.
The place to be terrified is in a 6-10 story unreinforced masonry apartment building.
wiredfool|1 year ago
Tall buildings (> 40 floors) are one of the safer places to be in an earthquake.
1) They're engineered.
2) They're already designed for side loads from wind.
3) Their fundamental frequency is well lower than the peak of the earthquake spectrum, so they don't amplify the motion. Good rule of thumb is that period = floors/10, so fo a 50 story building you're looking at a 5 second period. Earthquakes have most of their energy in ~1 second period waves. So effectively, the base wiggles and the top just floats along.
The place to be terrified is in a 6-10 story unreinforced masonry apartment building.
appleiigs|1 year ago
Famous last words.
komali2|1 year ago
Scratch that - a TSMC fabrication facility is probably safer.