Anti-Earthquake Structure Insulating the Kinetic Energy of Earthquake From Buildings

The earthquake has been an extremely destructive disaster long since. Although the architectural techniques and materials are greatly improved nowadays, the anti-earthquake design of a building still remains impractical without advanced development.

A conventional anti-earthquake design adopts reinforcing structure which stabilizes the building fixedly constructed on the ground. However, the energy produced by an earthquake is so unexpectedly huge that hardly can any reinforcing structure ever resist the extremely damaging force caused by an earthquake.

It is thought by the applicant that we can not fight with the earthquake but try to "insulate" the building from being affected by the earthquake. Therefore the present invention is developed by the applicant to eliminate the existing disadvantages in the conventional anti-earthquake design for buildings. According to the present invention, a plurality of supporting layers, the upper and lower surfaces of which are provided with multiple ball seats, and a plurality of corresponding ball members disposed on and pressed between the ball seats are constructed between a building and the construction site thereof, whereby the wobbling force of an earthquake are insulated from affecting the building via the extremely small rolling friction of the ball members against the supporting layers, and thus the building is kept static and stable without horizontal wobbling movement.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of the present invent constructed under a building;

FIG. 2 is a top elevation of the present invention taken on A--A line in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view of the ball member and ball seat of the present invention;

FIG. 4 shows another ball member and ball seat of the present invention;

FIG. 5 shows an ellipsoid member and a plane seat thereof;

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of the sliding block linkages taken on line C--C in FIG. 7;

FIG. 6-1 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view taken on line D--D in FIG. 6, showing the sliding block and guide rail of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a top elevation of the sliding block linkages of the present invention; and

FIG. 8 is a partially sectional perspective view of the present invention constructed under a building.

Please first refer to FIG. 1 showing an anti-earthquake structure of the present invention, constructed between a building (4) and a construction site (2). A plurality of ball bearings (3) are fixedly constructed on the construction site (2) to support a first set of ball member (6). A first supporting layer (S.sub.1), both upper and lower surfaces of which are equipped with plural curved ball seats (5), is disposed upon the first ball members (6) with the same pressed between the ball bearings (3) and the ball seats (5) on the lower surface of the first supporting layer (S.sub.1). Then, a second set of ball members (6) can be disposed on the ball seats (5) on the upper surface of the first supporting layer (S.sub.1), and a second supporting layer (S.sub.2) like the first supporting layer (S.sub.1) can be further disposed on the second set of ball members (6). Similarly, a third set of ball members (6) and a third supporting layer (S.sub.3) can be arranged according to the preceding procedure, whereby because the rolling friction between the ball members (6) and ball seats (5) is extremely small, thus even when an earthquake occurs, the wobbling construction site (2) can hardly transmit any kinetic energy to the supporting layer (S.sub.1), (S.sub.2), and (S.sub.3), and, as a consequence, the building (4) can hardly be affected by the earthquake and will remain stable and rigid.

Furthermore, a set of sliding block linkages (L) are provided between the third supporting layer (S.sub.3) and the base room of the building (4). The sliding block linkages (L) are used to absorb possible vertical oscillating energy caused by the earthquake to protect the building (4) from vertical impact. The sliding block linkages (L) will be described in detail hereafter.

Now please refer to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4. The ball members (6), ball bearings (3) and ball seats (5) are exactly shaped and made from extremely rigid material. Additionally, their sufaces are extremely smooth, and therefore the rolling friction between them is extremely small, whereby the horizontal displacement of the construction site (2) caused by an earthquake will not result in any considerable corresponding horizontal displacement of the building (4).

With reference to FIG. 2, the building (4) is evenly supported by a plurality of ball members (6) and ball seats (5) to distribute the weight of the building (4) over these ball members (6) and ball seats (5).

Referring again to FIG. 1, the construction site (2) is built in a recess (8) below the site line (7), and spaced from the walls (9) of the recess (8) at a certain distance. In addition, a set of buffer rubber elements (10) (or other similar elastic buffer means like spring or tire) are mounted on the walls (9) of the recess (8) to absorb impacting energy in case of an excessive horizontal displacement of the building (4) relative to the construction site (2). Several drainages (12), (11) are arranged around the recess (8) to drain the rainwater and protect the ball bearings (3) and other devices from contamination. As shown in FIG. 3, the ball bearing (3) includes a seat body (13) and plural bearing balls (14) disposed on the seat body (13). The ball member (6) is supported right upon the bearing balls (14) with extremely small rolling friction. The ball seat (5) has a curved recess surface, whereby in normal state or when the earthquake is over, the building (4) will be in its lowest position with the top of the ball member (6) kept in contact with the central point of the ball seat (5). The curved recess surface allows the building (4) to automatically return to its normal lowest position after the earthquake.

FIG. 4 shows a ball member (6) pressed between the curved upper ball seat (5a) and lower ball seat (5b). Also, when an earthquake is over, the ball member (6) will naturally roll back to its original position, i.e., a position contacting the highest point (M.sub.1) of the curved recess surface (5a) and the lowest point (M.sub.2) of the curved recess surface (5b).

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the ball member (6) and ball seat (5). A ball member (6) in the ellipsoidal shape having major axis (a) and minor axis (b) is pressed between two plane ball seats (5a) and (5b). When an earthquake is over, two ends of the minor axis (b) of the ellipsoid will contact the plane ball seats (5a) and (5b).

The above-mentioned three types of ball members (6) and ball seats (5) all can make the building (4) automatically return to its original lowest and most stable position. The curvature of the ball seat (5) can determine the rolling resistance of the ball member (6). The larger the curvature is, the greater the resistance appears, but the more reliable the returning of building (4) is. The design of the curvature of the ball seat (5) depends on practical requirements. Similarly, as shown in FIG. 5, the larger difference between major and minor axes (a), (b) of the ellipsoidal ball member (6) will cause a greater resistance to itself.

Further referring to FIGS. 6, 6-1, and 7, the sliding block linkage (L) of the present invention includes four first linkage bars (15) pivoted on a first pivot block (20) mounted on the lower surface of the building (4), and four second linkage bars (16) pivoted on a second pivot block (20). Each first linkage bar (15) and second linkage bar (16) are pivoted on a sliding block (17) at their other ends, the sliding block (17) being slidably guided by a guide rod (21) and a guide rail (24) disposed on the supporting layer (S.sub.3) in parallel with the guide rod (21). The sliding block (17) is restricted by a lever (18), two ends of which are respectively opposed to two buffer leaf bending springs (23). Additionally, a stopper block (19) is provided behind the lever (18) to prevent possible excessive load on the leaf bending springs (23).

The principle of lever is applied to the lever (18) wherein the distance between the sliding block (17) and the fulcrum of the lever (18) is smaller than those between the leaf bending springs (23) and the fulcrum of the lever (18), and thus the leaf bending springs (23) can bear many times the force transmitted from the sliding block (17).

When a vertical wobbling force is produced by an earthquake, or converted from the rolling movement of the ball members (6) on the curved recess ball seats (5), this vertical vibrating force will be converted into horizontal force through the link motion of the sliding block linkages (L) and absorbed by the buffer leaf bending springs (23) via the lever motion of the levers (18).

As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 8, the multiple supporting layers (S.sub.1), (S.sub.2), and (S.sub.3) help that the horizontal wobbling energy transmitted from the construction site (2) to the building (4) will be upward reduced layer by layer by geometric progression. The final energy reaching the building (4) will be negligibly small, and therefore the building (4) is protected from damage or crack.

In a typhoon or hurricane zone, multiple anchor blocks can be constructed around or under the building, and by means of corresponding steel cables or chains, the building (4) can be connected with the anchor blocks and limited within an allowable space range to avoid excessive affection of heavy wind or storm.

While the pipe lines (such as electrical wiring, water pipe line, etc.) disposed between the building (4) and the earth crust (1) can employ extensive pipes or S-shaped elastic pipes to avoid break or pipe lines caused by displacement of the construction site (2) relative to the building (4).