5. Conclusions

5.1 Summary of findings

The horizontal load on the building is not affected by the number of beams used in each floor. However, it is affected by different types of bracings. Out of the “X”, “SLASH” and “NONE”, “X” works the best at reducing the horizontal load. Moreover, a damper reduces the shake of the building for the the top floors but not the floors further down. Furthermore, the top floor of a building shakes more than the rest without any earthquake-resistant measure such as a damper.

5.2 Practical Applications

Future earthquake-proof buildings can be built with the “X” bracings on every floor, including the base floor, instead of having no bracings. This would decrease the horizontal load and thus, increase the earthquake-resistance of the building. The incorporation of “X” bracings onto a building would also help to minimise the destruction of the buildings.

Dampers can also be used for further studies in order to verify our results.

5.3 Areas for further study

Further study can be done to see how different factors affect the stability of the building.

The factors that can be introduced are the height of the building and the shape of the building. Furthermore, different arrangement of the beams and different types of bracings could be tested out.

A wider variety of materials can be used. For example, steel can be used, as real-life internal structures are made up of steel. Rubber is an excellent material to use to allow our buildings to have the flexibility. With a better understanding of the different types of materials in the market, the buildings can be better designed. Enhancement can be done to existing materials and can be incorporated into the buildings.

Other earthquake-resistant systems such as base isolation, spherical isolation system and sheer core can be simulated in a smaller scale in our laboratory. With enough research done, experimenting of the buildings can be followed up by inventing or innovating better seismic devices.