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
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
16128 GENOVA
Italy
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.