Earthquake Engineering

The most recent and destructive earthquake in Haiti has evidently killed many people (and animals also hahaha!).. until now, its effects are still being felt worldwide. We can even see a jam-packed of Haiti-related fund raising projects being campaigned on our news feeds in facebook.. What seemed to attract me was Farmville's way of gathering funds, though I contributed nothing, I still hope that they did not get any part or percentage from it..hmp. I'm just being suspicious for the sake of the victims.

Anyway.. I just want to share the relation of the havoc to my course, BS Civil Engineering.

This earthquake has a destructive power that can be obviously seen by observing the fate of Haiti's presidential palace. With its spaciousness and sparkling white facade, it has already withstood civil wars, military coups, and decades' worth of hurricanes. But in the hours after the earthquake, its collapse was cited as a proof of the severity of the crisis at hand. In the days since, it has come to symbolize something worse: Haiti's government on the verge of a complete meltdown in a country too poor to build even its most central structures properly.

But was it mainly the government's fault?

In our Earthquake Engineering subject, we were given a project by our professor Engr. Edison Dizon (we had to have an overnight of computation at Licel's crib.. It took us almost two weeks to finish the 1st half of the design..) The project is to be made by four students in every group. We were all tasked to design a 6-storey building that should pass the criteria for seismic design.. basically, the building should withstand a high-magnitude earthquake.

As far as I have studied, simply, when an earthquake hits, a building that has sacrificed structural support for the sake of artistry is bound to collapse. It's what engineers call the "soft-story effect".

There have been lots of Civil Engineering students who get fond of teasing Architecture students by means of design knowledge. In the case of the Haiti's Presidential Palace, it is fairly seen that Engineering principles in designing really have a higher importance in construction. Leading us to
a concrete proof that Archi students don't get teased without any basis :) wooh! cheers for the CE DEPARTMENT!! haha.

Finally, another problem is the rampant corruption in Haiti's construction industry. They simply don't enforce any building codes. What do they have? Architectural code? bwahaha.

Anyway, I just don't want to tackle more and tease further the Architecture. My bottom point is, if there's something I really learned from reading articles about Earthquake Engineering, it would be:

"It's a good rule of thumb that earthquakes don't kill people, collapsed buildings do"

That's why we've got Engineers here who have the ability to drastically minimize structural collapse, even in poor regions like Haiti and Philippines, even with severe earthquakes like this. haha!

here are some photos of our designing night:

OUR PROJECT

Future Engr. Shami

Future Engr. Silvestre


Future Structural Engr. ANGELO GARCIA! wooo! :p

for more pictures, click here.

good night!