Quote:
Originally Posted by worth
I'm not positive, I don't have any experience in the matter. I would think Vancouver buildings would have been built around a system that allows them to experience earthquakes since their basically right on a fault line.
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Buidings in B.C. are designed for pretty substantial seismic loads. For example a Canadian Tire built in Calgary will have the odd bay of light angle iron Bracing, usuallly 3 1/2 legs and only single angles usually designed for very light tension and compression loads to help keep the building square. 90% of the beam to column or beam to beam connections only require shear loads.
Whereas the same buiding built in the lower mainland or Vancouver Island will have a lot more braced bays, and the bracing tends to be heavy tube steel braces able to handle substantial compression loads. Many perimeter beams require shear and axial loads to transfer forces through the entire structure. The coast and the Island in particular have pretty substantial seismic requirements. Whereas something in Fort St.John is pretty much the same as a building built in Alberta.
The steel for the same building is considerably more expensive on the coast of BC given that the section sizes are heavier, and the connections are much more complex.
The idea is that the building is to be a rigid structure that will move in unison in the event of a seismic event, but stay together much like these buildings in Japan. I know after the Kobe earth quake they looking into things like different means of how to fasten glass so that windows wouldn't fall off in a heavy earth quake.