Project description
Airbags to protect buildings during an earthquake
Catastrophic earthquakes cannot be prevented. For earthquake-prone areas across Europe, protection is key. Since most earthquake-related deaths are caused by the collapse of buildings and other structures, proper building engineering practices can make a huge difference. In this context, the EU funded DampSpring project will pave the way with a novel friction pendulum damper composed of a system of springs and airbags able to better absorb both horizontal and vertical seismic induced movements. This allows the building to return to its original position at the end of the seismic action. DampSpring can be adapted to any building type or be retrofitted to existing structures without the need for any major alteration. It’s also less expensive than current anti-seismic solutions.
Objective
Earthquakes are known to cause catastrophic damages to infrastructure and loss of lives. From 1994-2015, earthquakes have claimed the lives of 750,000 people globally, destroying close to 22million buildings, resulting in economic damages of over €670 billion. Across Europe, the most vulnerable countries include Italy, the Balkans, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. Most earthquake-related deaths are caused by the collapse of structures. As such, proper building engineering practices can make a huge difference in earthquake prone regions. VE.CAM. Srl has developed a novel friction pendulum damper, DampSpring, with new embedded devices composed of a system of springs and airbags able to better absorb both horizontal and vertical seismic induced movements, allowing the structure to return to its original position at the end of the seismic action. DampSpring can be adapted to any building type and size or be retrofitted to existing structures without the need for any major alteration. VE.CAM’s solution will be 25% cheaper than current anti-seismic solutions, reducing maintenance costs by 10% and providing a 90% recentering mechanism for the load bearing structure following a seismic event. Successful commercialisation of DampSpring will help: save lives for the more than 150million people living in European earthquake prone regions, save billions of Euros on seismic events related expenses, protection of the European’s rich natural heritage and saving of renewable and non-renewable resources. Last but not least it will affect also the VE.CAM Srl growth ensuring by the fifth year after the launch a cumulative profit of €8 million and a ROI of 3.5.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences political sciences political transitions revolutions
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geology seismology
- engineering and technology civil engineering architecture engineering
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences physical geography natural disasters
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
16128 GENOVA
Italy
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.