On April 3, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck the sea off Hualien, Taiwan. According to CCTV News, the latest statistics from the Taiwan Disaster Response Center on the 4th show that the strong earthquake has killed 10 people, injured 1,067 people, trapped 660 people, and 38 people are missing.
According to the Shenzhen Evening News: Some netizens uploaded a video of the violent shaking of the Taipei 101 building during the earthquake, and the picture is worrying.
(Source: Shenzhen Evening News)
Building the "World's Tallest Building" in the midst of controversy
At 14:52 on March 31, 2002, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake occurred in the waters east of Taiwan, second only to the 1999 Taiwan Jiji earthquake, causing serious loss of life and property.
It is worth noting that the Taipei International Financial Center Building (now Taipei 101 Building), which was under construction at that time, had been built to the 56th floor, about 250 meters away, and the earthquake caused the tower crane used in the construction to collapse, smashing a number of cars, killing 5 people and injuring about 20 people at the scene. The treatment of earthquake damage continued until mid-May of that year.
The tower crane of the Taipei Financial Building (now Building 101) under construction collapsed in the earthquake (Sichuan Earthquake Bureau)
Taiwan is located at the junction of the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Plate, and is part of the Pacific Rim Volcanic Seismic Zone, where earthquakes are frequent. At that time, the Taipei Financial Center was planned to be built with 110 floors, aiming to become the "world's tallest building".
After the earthquake incident, many media outlets in Taiwan repeatedly commented that watching the buildings shake violently, people cannot help but be extremely worried: Whether Taiwan, which is located on an earthquake-prone island, has the ability and safety level to build the world's "tallest building"? The Taiwan masses have also appealed: It is better to be the first to be safe than the tallest building.
Fighting earthquakes and typhoons are the two keys that this building must solve. The construction of Building 101 focuses on the seismic design, and adopts a number of measures such as high-toughness joints and improved quenched and tempered dampers to form the "King Kong body" of the building. Until 2010, the Taipei Financial Center was the tallest building in the world.
The 660-ton "Dinglou Divine Ball" is available for visiting
At the end of 2004, the Taipei 101 Building, located in the earthquake zone, rewrote the Taipei skyline and became one of the miracles in the history of human architecture!
After completion, the 101 building has become a must-visit check-in point for Taipei tourism, not only can you experience the world's fastest elevator, it only takes 37 seconds to ascend from the 5th floor to the 89th floor, but you can also climb the 88th floor observation deck to take in the beautiful scenery of Taipei.
If you are a first-time visitor, you may be full of doubts about the purpose of a huge yellow sphere in the observation deck, which is the "artifact" of the Taipei 101 building that can stand tall in earthquakes and typhoons.
This "magic ball" has a diameter of 5.5 meters, weighs 660 tons, is suspended by steel cables on all sides, and uses 8 sets of small liquid dampers underneath, which is equivalent to hanging a large hammer.
This is the world's largest, exposed damper and is available for visitors to see. Dampers can reduce the shaking of the entire building in the event of high winds or earthquakes.
The "damper" of the Taipei 101 building (source: Xiamen Satellite TV)
The working principle of the "damper" is that when the side of the building is stressed, when a typhoon or earthquake strikes, it is detected by the computer and generates a reaction force with the corresponding swing to offset the pressure of part of the building.
Night view of Taipei 101 Building (source: Xiamen Satellite TV)
Tourists visit the 101 building in the earthquake and take pictures calmly
Facts have proved that this "Dinglou Divine Ball", which was installed on the 87th floor of Taipei 101 Building, has indeed played a huge role.
According to Chinanews.com, on the morning of April 20, 2015, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake occurred in Taiwan, and the 101 building shook violently.
According to the report, the surveillance footage on the 88th floor of the 101 building showed that during the earthquake, some people looked panicked, and some people did not react at all. However, there are also a few "calm sisters" who ignore the shaking of the sky and the earth, and do not forget to seize the opportunity to take pictures with the shaking "Dinglou Shenqiu".
According to the report, there are dampers in the 101 building that stabilize the seismic effect, and in the past, when there were earthquakes, the shaking amplitude was at most plus or minus 1 to 2 centimeters, but this time there was a swing amplitude of 15 centimeters, although it was not the largest ever, but the high floors were indeed "very shaky".
Schematic diagram of the position of the "wind damper" (source: Xiamen Satellite TV)
At 4:10 a.m. on August 8 of the same year, a strong wind of level 13 blew in Taipei City, and this time the "wind damper" of Taipei 101 Building swung 1 meter, setting a new record for the highest shaking since the completion of Building 101.
In addition, in the design of high-rise building seismic structure, multiple seismic defense lines are generally adopted, even if the components of the first line of defense are damaged under the huge seismic force, but also consume a part of the seismic energy, and the other seismic defense lines then play their ability to resist earthquakes in turn, and the overall realization of the goal of "small earthquakes are not bad, medium earthquakes can be repaired, and large earthquakes do not collapse".
Comprehensive: Jimu News, CCTV News, Shenzhen Evening News, Sichuan Earthquake Bureau, Xiamen Satellite TV, Chinanews.com