Houses can be built on stilts to avoid flooding in the hurricane season, but
many owners fix walls to the stilts to close off the area as storage space. If a
big wave hits, these walls take its full force, which can damage the whole
building, says Spencer Rogers, a coastal engineer at the University of North
Carolina at Wilmington. Instead, walls around the stilts should be designed to
collapse, he says. Rogers鈥 team tested a range of 鈥渂reakaway鈥 wall designs in a
tank with waves up to 2 metres high. Plywood panels 6 millimetres thick,
attached to stilts with studs 60 centimetres apart, collapsed before the forces
got dangerously high, they found.
More from New Scientist
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Technology
Test moderators use AI-generated writing to judge literacy standards
News
Mind
THC in cannabis may reduce nightmares in people with PTSD
News
Environment
Fishers detonate a bomb every hour on one Indonesian coral reef
News
Environment
How bad is the UK drought and how long will it continue?
News
Popular articles
Trending New Scientist articles