Weekly Progress

Week One

During this week, our group focused on touching base with one another and improving our knowledge on the subject of earthquake resistance structures. Though we did not know much, we were able to find a lot of information from the class presentations and videos related to the subject. Because this was only the first week, one of the biggest challenge was getting in contact with everyone. Eventually, we did and decided to use Zoom for our group meetings. We did some light brainstorming and determined that we would start out our building with a three story base.

Week Two

During week two, our group had three zoom meetings where we focused on brainstorming ideas of ways to improve our structure's response to seismic forces. We decided it was best to use cross bracing, a pendulum mass damper, and a base isolation system. A significant amount of time during this week was also devoted to the draft of our project proposal. Through the drafting process, we were able to get a rough timeline for the project as well as an outline to some of the activities we would need to do in order to reach our goal. In addition, we also constructed the basic building design, which can be seen from this image. From there, we will add the improvements needed once all the materials, other than the K'Nex pieces, are collected.

Week Three

As we finalized the project proposal, we decided to have a zoom meeting. During the meeting, we discussed and distributed specific roles for each member to ensure that we would get as much work done as possible during this time. We also continued to brainstorm ideas for our structure, essentially, coming to a final decision. One final decision made was to include a CAD software for our second and improved prototype. Using CAD will help us save time, especially during the construction process. But, because most of the members in the group have never used CAD, we thought it would be a good idea to start and try it out before the beginning construction of our second prototype.

Week Four

After constructing our building’s first prototype, the next thing to be done was to build the shake table. Using two pieces of wood, two rubber bands, and four tennis balls, our team leader quickly constructed a shake table that will be able to replicate the seismic activity of an earthquake. We hope that, in the next two weeks, we will be able to have the construction of our second prototype done as well as a virtual model of our buildings that will be designed in CAD.

Week Five

During week 5, some work was done on CAD. As you can see, this is the virtual model of our first prototype. In addition, the construction of our

second prototype was being built by our team

leader, which will include the improvements

we’ve suggested in the first two weeks. However, as the second prototype was being built, we realized that the classic cross bracing would not be possible due to the geometry of the structure. So, we decided on a custom bracing design that would work just as well. We were also aware the midterm oral presentation was due soon. For that reason, we held a meeting on zoom to look over the rubric and required content, in preparation for our presentation to go smoothly.

Week Six

This week, we all got together on zoom and recorded our midterm oral presentation, which consisted of:

reviewing what we’ve done since the beginning of the term
determining what needs to be done in the future

During our zoom call, we had few practice rounds before the “real deal”. While it was definitely a challenge, we were able to get through the presentation smoothly. Our presentation also included a few videos (such as these) testing our structures. As you can see, the first clip shown is our base structure with the mass damper. The next clip is our improved structure, also with the mass damper. When comparing the two, it can be seen that the improved structure had a better response to the shake table. However, from our results, we’ve determined that there were still some modifications to be done, such as improving the mass damper and implementing a base isolation system.

Week Seven

This week, we spoke with Fatemeh, our teaching fellow, about our midterm presentation and received feedback from the improvements and designs made. She suggested that we make a larger shake table to have the basic and improved structure stand side-by-side as it will ensure a consistent shaking throughout. So, as you can see from the image, the modified shake table is a lot larger than the one before. In addition, Fatemeh suggested that we should focus more on the effects of each improvement rather than a combination of one. For that reason, our future trials will consist of observing one improvement at a time. Lastly, we decided that we will not be adding a base isolation system because there seems to be no need for it as the structure was able to withstand the seismic waves of the shake table using the custom bracing design and mass damper. As we were making final adjustments and testings, we also worked on the final report draft, which was, essentially, an updated version of the project proposal.

Week Eight

With a few weeks left in the term, there are some things that need to be done. This includes our final report and presentation, which we’ve been slowly working on. Since the final presentation was going to be live, it meant that we would have to do a run-through or two before the live presentation. In the meantime, we spoke with our teaching fellow about our final report draft and received feedback in ways it could be improved. Overall, it was well-done. With the feedback kept in mind, we also conducted some final tests with the plan of having the shake table move at a faster rate to see a more diverse set of results for each structure.

Week Nine

For the last week of class, we found that, from the observations and tests made, the custom bracing design was the most effective in limiting seismic activity rather than the mass damper. With final testing coming to an end, we also had one zoom meeting to practice presenting. This was because the final oral presentation was going to be live and we wanted to make sure that it would not only go well but would also meet the time requirement, which fortunately it did. Similar to the oral presentation, each member had a responsibility to work on a certain part of the presentation. In addition, we finalized the report and, as well as, implemented the suggestions that were made last week.