SYNOPSIS OF

PROJECT

Submitted in the partial fulfillment of requirement for the award of the BACHELOR
OF ENGINEERING of

CIVIL ENGINEERING

Submitted by: -

Arshdeep Singh – 19BCE8032

Ayushi Agarwal – 19BCE8023

Nimra Shafi – 18BCE1127

Abhilash Singh Dogra – 18BCE1236

Madhur Sarin – 19BCE8028

Monish Soni – 19BCE8012

Under the Guidance of: -

Department of Civil Engineering

Chandigarh University, Gharuan

 INTRODUCTION

New research has shown that it is possible to develop an 'invisibility cloak' to protect buildings
from earthquakes. You may think of water or sound when considering the topic of waves, but
earthquakes also produce waves, classified by geologists as body and surface waves.
Now imagine if you could interrupt the transmission of some seismic waves. It might be
possible to deflect the energy or reroute it.

Let's talk about earthquakes now: -

An earthquake is a sudden shaking movement of the surface of the earth. It is known as a
quake, tremble or tremor. Earthquakes can range in size from those that are weak (For
example: - During the last 10 days assam has been constantly experiencing mild intensity
earthquakes of magnitude 4.6.)
Earthquakes can also be large and violent enough to toss people around and destroy whole
cities (For example: -The Bhuj earthquake reached an astonishing 7.7 on the moment
magnitude scale and killed between 13,805 and 20,023 people, including 18 in the Pakistani
region, injured another 1,67,000 more and destroyed nearly 3,40,000 buildings).
Earthquakes travel in waves, similar to that of sound and light waves.
Scientists have previously designed materials with internal structures that interfere with the
propagation of sound and light, and now researchers are working on making bigger versions of
these structures, which could be used to control the propagation of earthquakes.
The major reason for the high frequency and intensity of the earthquakes is that the Indian
plate is driving into Asia at a rate of approximately 47 mm/year. Geographical statistics of India
show that almost 54% of the land is vulnerable to earthquakes. A World Bank and United
Nations report shows estimates that around 200 million city dwellers in India will be exposed to
storms and earthquakes by 2050.
Moreover, traditionally built structures in India are not at all safe from the seismic point of
view. The brick masonry structures fail badly even in the slightest of earthquakes so there is a
need of the hour to design and construct earthquake resistant buildings in India. Invisibility
cloak design is one such method. In this rubber or plastic rings are inserted all around the
structure.
Let's talk about the technology we are interested in: -
The technology involves the use of concentric rings of plastic/rubber which could be fitted to
the Earth's surface to divert surface waves. By controlling the stiffness and elasticity of the
rings, waves travelling through the cloak pass smoothly into the material and are compressed
into small fluctuations in pressure and density.
The path of the surface waves can be made into an arc that directs the waves outside the
protective cloak. The technique could be applied to buildings by installing the rings into
foundations.
Sebastien Guenneau, from the University’s Department of Mathematics, who developed the
technology with Stefan Enoch and Mohamed Farhat from the Fresnel Institute (CNRS) in
Marseilles, France, explained: “We are able to ‘tune’ the cloak to the differing frequencies of
incoming waves which means we can divert waves of a variety of frequencies. For each small
frequency range, there is a pair of rings which does most of the work and these move about a
lot – bending up and down – when they are hit by a wave at their frequency.
The waves are then directed outside the cloak where they return to their previous size. The
cloak does not reflect waves they continue to travel behind it with the same intensity. At this
stage, therefore, we can only transfer the risk from one area to another, rather than eliminate
it completely.”
He added: “This work has enormous potential in offering protection for densely populated
areas of the world at risk from earthquakes. The challenge now is to turn our theories into real
applications that can save lives – small scale experiments are underway.”
 OBJECTIVES

The main purpose of invisibility cloak mechanism is to provide simple yet solid
earthquake resistance to new buildings. This revolutionary idea will not only save
lives and material but will also lessen the amount of maintenance costs of a
structure. The main objectives of this mechanism are -

1. Providing a safe base to the new structures constructed.

2. Safeguarding the buildings and important centers like nuclear plants etc. from
damages during an earthquake.

3. Reducing the overall repair and maintenance cost of buildings.

4. Providing a solid non-visible seismic wave resisting member which does not affect
the aesthetic appearance and look of the structure.
 METHODOLOGY

In invisibility cloak mechanism for earthquake resistance, concentric rubber rings

are inserted around the structure under the ground surface. These rings act as an
absorbing membrane which does not allow passing of seismic waves through them.
They reflect some the waves back and absorb the remaining, thus saving the
structure from any damage.
These should be most preferably used in isolated building so that the adjoining
non-resistant buildings are not affected by the reflected waves. These can be used in
centers of national importance like research centers, nuclear power plants,
hazardous industries, dams, airports, bridges etc.
According to a study by researchers from University of Manchester's School of
Mathematics, specially treated metamaterial rubber cylinders can be used to cloak
the building and the seismic waves would not be able to ‘see’ the building and would
pass without doing any damage.