Scorpion braces buildings for seismic resistance

A new system for making buildings resistant to earthquakes was successfully tested at full scale at the University of Toronto’s Civil Engineering Structural Testing Facility last year.

Known as the “Scorpion” yielding bracing system (YBS), the system looks like a giant wrench. The prototype tested at U of T was designed for a second storey brace in a fictitious 6-storey office building in an extremely seismically active region, like Vancouver or Los Angeles.

It was laid diagonally across a test building and then subjected to seismic forces of a half-million pounds.

The  system was developed over five years under the supervision of Professor Constantine Hristopoulos, Professor Jeffrey Packer and doctoral research student Michael Gray.  It is being commercialized by a company called Cast Connex.