Summary Draft #2 : How Volcanic Ash Strengthens A Roof Against Powerful Projectiles


In the article “How Volcanic Ash Strengthens A Roof Against Powerful Projectiles”, Williams (2019) states that the addition of volcanic ash layers on the roofs can mitigate the impact of volcanic projectiles on shelters around active volcanoes.

Williams claims that scientists had discovered mountain huts were capable of providing life-saving shelter for hikers during the eruption that took place at Mount Ontake, Japan 2014. This finding inspired the scientists to further study on how the addition of volcanic ash on roofs could reduce impacts of projectiles. Through meticulous simulation, scientists were able to deduce that the thickness of ash deposit is proportional to the roofs’ energy absorption rate from projectiles. Five centimeters of ash layer tripled the strength of the roof from projectiles. However, heavier loads of ash may affect the structural integrity of the roof.

Additionally, he states that scientists expected buildings to take more damage from multiple volcanic hazards as compared to one. Tests proved otherwise, on condition that tephra is placed on roofs before impacts. Williams concludes that researchers will conduct further investigations to determine the optimum range of ash deposit layers to achieve a balance between reducing impact of projectiles and risk of roof collapsing. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Assignment 1 Submission 2: Annotated Summary

The contents of this article discuss on the concept behind kinetic floor tiles and the effect of using it. According to Dr Winkleman et al. (2011) the ability for kinetic floor tiles to generate electricity is due to the “Piezoelectric Effect”; this phenomenon generates electrical charges when an external stress exerts on a piezoelectric material. It converts kinetic energy to electrical energy through a compression of 5 millimeters on the tiles by human footsteps and that energy generated can be used to power devices. The tiles are made up of a variety of recycled materials that have minimum impact on the environment, it is also made to last for 5 years and withstand harsh weather conditions.  Dr Winkleman et al. also analyzes the positive and negative impacts such as social, environmental and economic effects of utilizing the technology. From social perspective, kinetic floor tiles help to change the way people view on sustainable changes. Furthermore, the article ment...
Read more

Assignment 1: Formal Letter

Dear Professor Blackstone, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as a student in the CVE1281 Effective Communication module. My name is Ken Wen and I am an international student from Malaysia. Having graduated from Singapore Polytechnic last year gave me some fundamental knowledge of civil engineering. With this knowledge I am able to further my studies here in Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). Since young, I was inspired by my father’s business and it sparked my curiosity in civil engineering. I was motivated to follow my father’s footsteps and become the successor of his business when he retires. The lack of ability to communicate effectively has been my greatest weakness. I always had issue with conveying my ideas to the audience, as I am not able to find the correct words to deliver my thoughts. I tend to stutter most of the time during oral presentation because I doubt the choice of words I use every time I explain something. I have a constant ...
Read more

Critical Reflection

Throughout my journey in this course, I feel that my writing, reading and communication skills have improved significantly, even though there are still lots of room for improvements. I started off with the lack of knowledge on how to write a summary of an article with proper citations. With an appropriate amount of guidance, coming out with a short paragraph of an article have become much easier. I feel that I did well in capturing the main ideas of the topic I did and summarize it within the word limits. However, I need to improve on my grammar and vocabulary skills because I often receive feedbacks from my peers and lecture that some of the sentences that I wrote sounds weird. I plan to work on my language skills by exposing myself to more reading and writing related activities. In addition, public speaking has always been a challenge to me as I tend to stutter during presentation which led to difficulty in expressing my thoughts accurately. With sufficient research and pre...
Read more