NEESR Project: Controlled Rocking of Steel-Framed Buildings with Replaceable Energy Dissipating Fuses
(PI: Gregory Deierlein, Stanford University)

Stanford engineers and others create a structural design that lets buildings rock during earthquakes, then pull themselves into plumb when the shaking stops, confining damage to replaceable steel "fuses."

Prof. Greg Deierlein, Civil and Environmental Engineering, explains how he used the worlds largest shake table to test a new steel frame design that confines damage during earthquake shaking to certain easily replaced parts and also lets buildings pull themselves back into plumb after the earthquake.

For more information, please visit:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/august31/quake-shaking... (less info)