It's a threat many Californians live with daily. 30 seconds of terror most of us hope we never experience, but researchers all the way across the country at Penn State know every shake, shiver, and tremor of America's major quakes by heart. On a specially built shake table, architectural engineers study historical quakes on a mini scale, right in a basement laboratory. They took a life-sized wall, mounted it on a special rack, and started to go. The goal here is not to improve the frame, but everything that fills it - shards of glass and other debris. These engineers designed glass panels that don't touch the corners of the frame. By rounding the glass corners and polishing the edges, researchers found that the glass curtain walls would have 50% more drift capacity. Meaning, the frame could move 50% more before the glass would break. Researchers are also testing infill walls, which are the bricks and masonry inside a frame. Professor Memari has designed what he calls "fuses" for the walls. These are tiny lumber or concrete disks mounted between the wall and the frame. When the force that transfers from the frame to the wall exceeds the capacity of the fuse, the fuse breaks. These two techniques are designed to help make buildings earthquake resistant. This is Jacqueline London reporting.
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