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The Ideers Project

Project designs

Project designs

Student working on a design

Student working on a design

22 April 2008

Since 2000, Adam Crewe and Wendy Daniell from the Earthquake Engineering Research Centre have been running an international competition for students to design models of earthquake-resistant buildings.

Since 2000, Adam Crewe and Wendy Daniell from the Earthquake Engineering Research Centre have been running an international competition for students to design models of earthquake-resistant buildings.

Earthquakes have a significant effect on society, causing loss of life and damage to infrastructure. Furthermore, there is a lack of public understanding about the way that earthquakes affect structures and the preventative measures that can be taken to design safer buildings. If more people were aware of the factors affecting the performance of structures and the importance of good design and construction, this might reduce the likelihood that inappropriate structures are built where there is a risk of earthquakes.

In order to increase public understanding of earthquake engineering and inspire children – some of whom who may become the engineers of the future – the IDEERS project (Introducing and Demonstrating Earthquake Engineering Research in Schools) was created to promote understanding of the value and process of earthquake engineering activities. The use of cheap materials and the ability to destroy the models on a typical shaking-table, drove much of the design development, thus the key requirements for the models were based on the following criteria:

• Models must be representative of real structures.

• The competition rules must be flexible enough to allow a large number of different designs.

• It must be possible to test and destroy models using a typical shaking-table so students can observe failure modes and compare the ultimate performance of their models.

• Materials for models must be cheap and readily available to schools.

• No special equipment must be needed to construct the models.

• The model-making skills needed must suit the target age group.

 

Since the start of IDEERS, over a thousand students between the ages of 12 and 25 have built and tested their models to destruction on earthquake simulators around the world. Although originally designed to run as a national competition for school children in the UK, it was so successful that the British Council invited Adam Crewe and Wendy Daniell to run IDEERS in Taiwan for university students at the National Centre for Research in Earthquake Engineering. In 2003 the competition was held for the first time in Japan at the Kajima Research Laboratory in Tokyo.

In Taiwan, the competition is held on the anniversary of the 921 Chi-Chi earthquake that occurred on September 21 (hence 921) 1999, which is still fresh in people’s memory. It is run as a single-day event but in advance of the competition, competitors can make use of a specially designed web site to research some of the techniques used to make earthquake-resistant buildings, and to plan their designs. On the day of the competition the students build their models, which are then tested to destruction at the end of the day. The competition has generated significant press and publicity, including a one-hour TV programme aired on National Taiwan Day. The programme combined the excitement of the competition with a more serious discussion about how earthquakes cause damage to structures, thereby helping to educate the general public about the need for good engineering solutions to meet the challenge of earthquake-resistant design.

Earthquakes have a significant effect on society, causing loss of life and damage to infrastructure

In Taiwan parallel competitions are run for high school and university students from all over the country, which has resulted in intense competition. The laboratory is open to the public during the competition and young children very much enjoy the destruction during the shaking-table testing – many expressing a desire to take part in the competition when they are old enough. By displaying all the models before testing starts, there is an opportunity for high school students to learn from the more complex designs of the university students. Another effect of the intense competition has been the development of a much more comprehensive set of failure criteria, with the reasoning behind each one being clearly set out.

Over the years, a great number of different designs have been produced. Of particular interest are the contrasting design styles of the three countries and the very different ways in which the models fail. The main differences in design probably stem from the different types of construction that the students see around them every day. For example, most models made by UK students have strong floors and relatively weak columns, because earthquake loading is not normally a key design case in the UK. The models made by the Japanese and Taiwanese students, however, follow standard earthquake engineering practice, with strong columns and weaker floors. Another obvious difference is the way Taiwanese students use a great deal of string to wrap their columns and beam joints to enhance their strength. This is very different to UK students who rarely use string in their models.

The competition has generated significant press and publicity, including a TV programme

The different forms of construction result in different failure modes, and all the failure modes typical of real structures, following real earthquakes, have been observed in the students’ models. To best explain the failures seen during the tests, consulting engineers working in structural dynamics are used as judges wherever possible, as well as researchers from the universities and research laboratories. After each test the judges talk about the failure modes observed during the tests. This has helped to educate the students and it is noticeable that students who then take part in subsequent years have significantly improved their models by taking into account what they learnt about failure modes.

The IDEERS competitions have generated a significant amount of interest worldwide and it is hoped that the project will continue to inspire and educate some of our future engineers about the importance of earthquake engineering activities. The activities have been valuable for society at large and the competition has also resulted in the creation of an academic link to foster collaborative research between Taiwan’s National Centre for Research in Earthquake Engineering and the University of Bristol. Since it is becoming increasingly important for academics to be involved in public awareness activities, competitions like this can provide an enjoyable way for researchers to engage with the public while developing links with similar organisations around the world.

Financial support for developing this project was provided by the EPSRC.

Dr Wendy Daniell & Dr Adam Crewe / IDEERS

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