Earthquakes of magnitude 7 would cause many deaths in Italy ( in the order of hundreds or even thousands ) and extensive damage to buildings in the affected areas, in Japan the scale of these data is greatly reduced (in the order of a few tens ) .
The “secret” of Japan, but also in other countries such as California, Mexico, Turkey , New Zealand, is in technologies such as anti-seismic bearings , the use of elastic steel , carbon fiber wrapped around the columns and makes them more resistant to fracture.
But what are the anti-seismic bearings and elastic steel?
Simple, are nothing more than shock absorbers which, positioned at the base of the buildings, dissipate energy and limit the effects on the structure due to efforts shear , torsional and bending caused by earthquakes also a strong impact.
In addition to providing protection for earthquakes , earthquake-resistant bearings allow you to isolate the building from vibrations assets and liabilities which over time can cause damage to buildings .
The elastic steels are capable of undergoing deformations larger than the steels use normally, and then return to the initial configuration without undergoing substantial changes in the constitutive relationship of the material.
“There is no earthquake can collapse a building constructed by taking all the devices earthquake engineering “
Rui Pinho , a professor of structural mechanics at the University of Pavia