Seismic

Safety is a hot issue in the public eye of late. Zonneveld ingenieurs already has some 20 years experience in engineering earthquake resisting buildings. The past few years we have been intimately involved in earthquake engineering of hundreds of buildings in the Groningen area in The Netherlands. Currently, Zonneveld together with Fugro is also involved in a pilot with tilt sensors, which have been placed on several locations throughout the Groningen earthquake area. See also the website of the National Coordinator Groningen NCG.

 

Powerhouse Helperpark Groningen

In the Helperpark an apartment complex with 74 apartments is being realised. Zonneveld ingenieurs is responsible for the construction of this building. The apartment complex with 6 storeys consists of 70 normal apartments, 4 penthouses and office space on ground floor. A parking garage for residents is being realised beneath the building. The project is located in an earthquake zone. This has been accounted for in the construction.
 
SAFETY, GRONINGEN, EARTHQUAKES, OFFICES, RESIDENCES

Merckt

Merckt is a project in the centre of Groningen city situated on the corner of Grote Markt. The building houses apartments and small restaurants. Because of its specific shape, the earthquake resistant engineering for the building was particularly complex. Through an NLTH-analyse, the behaviour of the structure during an earthquake was investigated, see our paper. Especially the lower levels are sensitive to earthquake loads. To make the building earthquake resistant in its present form, the apartments have been structurally 'separated' from the lower levels. This significantly reduces the forces from the apartments in case of an earthquake and enables the structure to absorb them within the present design.

We have made a short illustration with a comparison of an earthquake analysis of Merckt with and without base isolation.
SAFETY, GRONINGEN, RESIDENCES, SHOPS, EARTHQUAKES

Polaris Paddepoel

In the Paddepoel district a residential tower called 'Polaris' is being realised. This tower is going to be around 70 metres high. Regarding the earthquakes (PGA = 0,08), research has been done into the consequences for the main load bearing structures of this high-rise building. The forces are of such size that a sollution with base isolation is the most economical. This sollution has been completely integrated into the design and implementation of this complex. We chose to implement base isolation between the foundation beams and ground floor. The entire main load-bearing construction, including reinforcement and the structural design has been analysed and calculated with the use of an NLTH analysis in Abaqus. 
 
SAFETY, GRONINGEN, RESIDENCES, HIGH-RISE, EARTHQUAKES
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