Read the article in Korean

Vibration mitigation device between building and ground

Prevention of human casualties + maintenance of facility functions

Emerging ‘alternative’ for the hyper-connected society of electricity and ICT

 

Minsoo Kim

Approved 24.09.19 06:00

 

[Daehan Kyungjae = Reporter Kim Min-soo] #1. Taiwan's TSMC, the world's largest foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) company, operated its factories normally despite a magnitude 6.3 earthquake that occurred in eastern Hualien County last month. This is thanks to the extensive application of seismic isolation design, taking lessons from the damage suffered from a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in 1999.

 

#2. In 2016, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake occurred in Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do. At the time, reports of the earthquake poured in from Busan, 86km away, but it is said that employees at the LG CNS Busan Data Center in Gangseo-gu, Busan did not even feel the slightest tremor. The Busan Data Center, completed in 2013, is the first seismic isolation building in Korea and was designed to withstand a magnitude 8.0 earthquake.

 

The paradigm of seismic design for buildings is changing. Previously, the focus was on saving the ‘golden time’ for people to escape before a building collapsed, but recently, the argument that we should pay attention not only to preventing casualties but also to maintaining the functions of facilities has been gaining traction. This is because in a hyper-connected society represented by electricity and ICT (information and communication technology), the paralysis of the functions of facilities can result in social and even national losses.

 

According to the relevant industry on the 18th, seismic isolation is emerging as a new alternative for domestic earthquake-resistant design in line with rapidly changing social trends.

 

Seismic design is divided into △seismic resistance △seismic control △seismic isolation, and experts in earthquakes believe that seismic isolation is the most effective in terms of maintaining the functions of facilities in the event of an earthquake.

 

Seismic isolation is a concept that minimizes seismic force by inserting a type of device (seismic isolation device) such as laminated rubber between the foundation of a building and the ground.

 

The advantage of seismic isolation is that it can maintain the social functions of a building even after an earthquake occurs. It can also minimize damage to non-structural materials inside buildings, such as electrical, water, and gas pipes, and prevent secondary damage caused by earthquakes.

 

Seismic isolation has been applied to some local facilities such as museums and art galleries to protect them, but recently, it has been applied to data centers, nuclear power plants, and hospitals. Furthermore, its use is expected to expand further, such as in vertiports, which are dedicated landing and takeoff areas for UAM (urban air traffic).

 

Oh Sang-hoon, Chairman of the Korea Seismic Isolation and Control Association, emphasized, “Since our country is no longer a safe zone from earthquakes, the need for seismic design is increasing,” and “Among them, it is urgent to apply seismic isolation to key public buildings and large complex facilities to prevent damage to precision machines such as computers and to maintain social functions even in the event of a disaster.”​