How to Build a Simple Earthquake-Proof Model

Design your building. Draw it on paper before beginning the model. Design the building in any way you desire, but symmetrical buildings are more efficient resisting the forces of an earthquake, because the symmetry limits moment, or torsion, about an axis from differing, connected building masses. The building symmetry can be in plan, from the top view, as well as in elevation, from the side views. In addition, masses or elements projecting from the building's form create more torque, so limit projections to resist harmful effects from the earthquake.

Construct your model from basswood sheets oriented perpendicularly to one another and glued along each edge to create your model's walls. Cut the basswood sheets with a sharp craft knife and metal straight-edge, creating perpendicular cuts. Poor cutting will result in jagged edges with poor surfaces to glue. Place small dots or a thin line of glue along each edge before gluing. Too much glue will result in weak joins, slow drying times and poor craftsmanship.

You may add columns and openings in the building, but the basswood sheets act as shear panels, which resist deformation from lateral forces. Shear is a material strain that results from internal forces countering one another in reaction to an exterior force. A lateral force is a load coming from the side, such as wind or an earthquake, rather than a vertical load, such as gravity.

Glue flat basswood plates for floors and roofs to create horizontal shear panels. Horizontal shear panels, in conjunction with vertical shear panels, limit the three-dimensional deformation of a structure and provide structural redundancy to resist lateral loads and the resulting shear. Glue the wall edges to the floor plates with a series of small dots or thin lines of glue to create a strong, integrated structure. The glue stabilizes the forms, equivalent to ties and steel reinforcing used in real buildings, and the integration of the elements ensures the walls and floors don't rotate out of plane.

Glue springs or wax paper strips to the bottom of the model. The springs act like dampers, which real buildings use to limit the extent of the lateral loads on a structure. The wax paper reduces friction so the building can roll, or slide horizontally, in response to the lateral loads of the earthquake.

Real buildings sometimes use roller bearings, like the wax paper strips, to resist earthquakes, although high-rise structures often use the system with counterweights to limit the effects of hurricanes, which produce similar lateral forces to earthquakes.

Glue the other ends of the springs or glue wax paper strips to the plywood base. The plywood base represents the ground --- the building must be structurally insulated with the springs or roller bearing paper strips against the motion of the ground to resist damage from the vibrations and oscillations of the plywood ground when modeling seismic effects of an earthquake. In real earthquakes, the ground mass moves laterally in waves, undulating and pounding into the neighboring ground. Vibrating or shaking a plywood board base is a simple, but accurate, way to test earthquake effects on your model.