Lizard-inspired structures could help avoid catastrophic building collapses

This new design will prevent catastrophic collapses, thus saving human lives.

Lizard-inspired structures could help avoid catastrophic building collapses

An image of the Sampoong Department Store after its collapse in 1995.

Wikimedia Commons

A team of researchers from the ICITECH Institute of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) have unveiled a remarkable method to construct highly resilient buildings.

Inspired by lizards’ ability to detach their tails when attacked, the researchers devised the method that adds as a last line of defense against catastrophic building collapses.

Lizards employ autotomy, a self-defense mechanism that allows them to escape a predator’s grasp by discarding one or more of its appendages. The tail comprises several segments, each representing a point where the tail can break off.

Current building design practices focus on redistributing loads in the event of component failure. This approach of improving the connectivity between structural components is effective for small initial failures.

However, when faced with large initial failures, this approach can paradoxically increase the risk of progressive collapse. Recent tragic incidents like the Champlain Towers collapse, the Peñíscola building collapse in 2021, and the Abadan disaster in Iran in 2022 stemmed from large initial failures.

The ICITECH-UPV team aims to overcome this limitation by introducing “structural fuses.”

A paradigm shift in structural resilience

The team sought to develop a new philosophy to construct buildings capable of withstanding hazards such as floods, landslides, aging, or even inadequate maintenance.

This philosophy is “similar to protecting an electrical system against overloads by connecting different grid components through electrical fuses,” said Nirvan Makoond, a member of ICITECH-UPV and co-author of the study, in a statement.

The new design preserves the building’s structural continuity under normal operating conditions. However, when failure propagation becomes inevitable, structural continuity is segmented. This approach prevents total collapse and safeguards the rest of the building, reducing the extent of damage. 

For all its benefits, the new method adds negligible costs to construction. Andri Setiawan, co-author of the study, attributes its cost-effectiveness to the use of conventional construction details materials.

Testing in the real world

To validate their design in the real world, the team built a real-scale building made of prefabricated concrete. When a large initial failure was introduced in the structure, they observed the failure to be isolated, preventing the building’s total collapse.

In its current state of development, the team’s new approach can be applied to virtually any new building. ”Its effectiveness has been verified and demonstrated for a full-scale specimen made of prefabricated concrete. We are currently working on extending the methodology to buildings constructed with in-situ concrete and steel,” co-author Manuel Buitrago added. 

“It is the first solution against collapse propagation in buildings after large initial failures that has been test and verified at full scale,” highlighted Jose M. Adam, another co-author of the research paper. “The application of the new design will prevent catastrophic collapses, thus protecting human lives and minimizing economic losses.”

This research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) with a Consolidator Grant of over 2.5 million euros.

Details of the team’s research were published in the journal Nature.

Study Abstract

Several catastrophic building collapses occur because of the propagation of local-initial failures. Current design methods attempt to completely prevent collapse after initial failures by improving connectivity between building components. These measures ensure that the loads supported by the failed components are redistributed to the rest of the structural system. However, increased connectivity can contribute to collapsing elements pulling down parts of a building that would otherwise be unaffected. This risk is particularly important when large initial failures occur, as tends to be the case in the most disastrous collapses.

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Here we present an original design approach to arrest collapse propagation after major initial failures. When a collapse initiates, the approach ensures that specific elements fail before the failure of the most critical components for global stability. The structural system thus separates into different parts and isolates collapse when its propagation would otherwise be inevitable. The effectiveness of the approach is proved through unique experimental tests on a purposely built full-scale building. We also demonstrate that large initial failures would lead to total collapse of the test building if increased connectivity was implemented as recommended by present guidelines. Our proposed approach enables incorporating a last line of defence for more resilient buildings.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amal Jos Chacko Amal writes code on a typical business day and dreams of clicking pictures of cool buildings and reading a book curled by the fire. He loves anything tech, consumer electronics, photography, cars, chess, football, and F1.