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Earthquake resistant house

Earthquake resistant house description/claims

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/949,613 filed on Jul. 13, 2007, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to buildings and, more particularly, to buildings designed to be resistant to earthquakes.

2. Description of the Related Art

Particular geographical areas are known to suffer from earthquakes. Generally, earthquake-prone areas are near a geological fault in the earth's tectonic plates. For example, in the United States, California is prone to earthquakes because it runs along the San Andreas fault. The damage to buildings from earthquakes is costly and it is inconvenient and time consuming to rebuild. Additionally, people are often injured from total or partial collapse of a building and from falling pieces of the building during an earthquake.

To reduce earthquake injuries and building damage, people have used many different types of earthquake-resistant structures and construction techniques. For example, passive damping construction techniques may be used to absorb shaking energy within a building during an earthquake. Passive damping includes using building materials that deform, but will not break during an earthquake. Diagonal bracing is used to resist the shearing forces from the swaying of a building. However, these techniques may limit the materials and designs used for a building structure. For example, it is difficult to determine the amount of deformation that can be allowed in a building material, because using a material with too much deformation can affect the strength of a building's structure. Additionally, a building design with too much diagonal bracing may not be aesthetically appealing to a building owner, or may limit the use of other standard materials during the building construction. Thus, there is a need for an earthquake-resistant building support that absorbs the shaking from an earthquake while allowing the use of standard building materials and designs.

The present invention provides an earthquake resistant structure, which includes a structure base assembly and a building structure positioned on the structure base assembly. The earthquake resistant structure includes a base isolation assembly, which carries the building structure and structure base assembly, wherein the base isolation assembly includes a movement member and horizontal dampening member which allow the building structure and structure base assembly to move in response to an applied force. In some embodiments, the movement member is a spherical ball and in some embodiments, the horizontal dampening member is a spring. The spring is compressed and decompressed in response to movement of the movement member. The base isolation assembly can include a cell which contains the movement member.

The present invention provides an earthquake resistant structure, which includes a structure base assembly having a plurality of interior and exterior walls connected together to form a plurality of volumes and a building structure positioned on the structure base assembly. The earthquake resistant structure includes a base isolation assembly, which carries the building structure and structure base assembly. The base isolation assembly includes a plurality of movement assemblies positioned in a corresponding volume, each movement assembly including a support grid and a plurality of movement members and a plurality of dampening assemblies, each dampening assembly including a plate which carries a plurality of vertical dampening members.

Further features and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, taken together with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1a is a top perspective view of an earthquake-resistant structure, in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 1b is a top perspective view of a structure base assembly and base isolation assembly, in accordance with the invention, included in the earthquake resistant structure of FIG. 1a.

FIGS. 2a and 2b are a top perspective view and a bottom view of a structure base assembly, in accordance with the invention, included in the earthquake resistant structure of FIG. 1a.

FIGS. 3a and 3b are top perspective views of a dampening assembly and a movement assembly, respectively, in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 3c is a sectional top view of movement assembly 111, in accordance with the invention.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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