Researchers at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid have successfully tested a new system to build earthquake resistant houses of high interest to third world countries with earthquakes.

As a result of a research carried out by researchers at the E.T.S. of Architecture of the UPM, they have developed and tested a new construction system, Integral Masonry System (IMS). The results of these tests proved that once a house is built with this stable permanent system without significant cracks and once its cracks are repaired, the building is able to continue resisting severe earthquakes.

Many of the existing houses in seismic areas of low economic resources are built with adobe, hollow brick or concrete block. All of them are materials that proved not to be suitable by themselves to build earthquake resistant houses. From this idea, they developed a project for third world countries in order to give an alternative constructive solution which was able to give guaranties of reliability against natural disaster and at a low cost.

This system (IMS) uses prefabricated trusses made with steel rods, very light and easy to install by hand, intersecting in the three directions of space to build the walls and floors that are then filled with debris, mud, brick or block for walls. The system can incorporate only a plank on the slab to give rigidity.

Click here to read full article

Category: Science & Technology