Seismobrick Unit Cell for Protection of Buildings

Civil Infrastructures & Structural Engineering

Applications – Construction & Infrastructure, Business Sector, Industrial Sector.

Industry – Civil Engineering and Construction

Market – Global land seismic equipment market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.5% from 2022 -2030.

Earthquakes can cause catastrophic failures and damage to the environment. The seismic vibrations are typically in the frequency range of one to few tens of Hz, and can cause a substantial amount of destruction related to mortality.
The conventional methods for suppression of seismic vibrations are not flexible and have disadvantages such as complicated system design, mechanical damper which needs to be replaced after its life, larger response time which leads to lesser efficiency of damping.
Also, the seismic metamaterial typically used to dampen earthquake waves have a narrow bandgap usually 5-6 Hz wide, and they cannot be implemented in all geographical conditions and incurs a high installation cost.
The present invention addresses the need to develop damping structures called such Seismobricks using metamaterial, which can be adaptable to various geological conditions.

SYSTEM

The technology is a novel Brick element called SeismoBrick, which shields structures from surface vibrations by attenuating or scattering surface waves away.
These series of brick units form damping structures for inducing a wide surface bandgap in the ultra-low frequency range.
Seismobricks consists of a steel resonator pillar embedded in soil and fixed on a rigid platform (called a clamping bed) in the form of a concrete base to achieve a very large attenuation zone. Fig. 1 (a)
SeismoBricks embedded in the matrix block the bandgap surface waves. Fig. 1 (b). Thus, to minimise suspension vibrations, a metamaterial-based dampers are developed and utilized around the containment zone to prevent destructive waves from entering protected sites.

The technology provides Seismobrick units in the form of containment zone around target structures, which are used to protect them from ultra-low frequency seismic disturbances in the frequency range of 0-33 Hz.
The seismic metamaterial used are convenient for practical implementation, and yield effective broadband surface wave mitigation in target regions.
The product has a wider bandgap than the prior art due to contact between the clamping bed layer and rigidly fixed resonators embedded in the homogeneous matrix.

Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal

Department of Mechanical Engineering

TRL – 4

Technology validated in lab scale.

Technology Transfer