Applications
BUILDINGS & HOSPITALS
With over 50 years of experience in the field of the special engineering, TENSA is leader in the design, production, testing and installation of seismic devices and PT systems for the protection of buildings and hospitals, as well as their contents.
Advantages
The TENSA technologies widely applied in buildings and hospitals are meant to:
- Transfer vertical and horizontal loads and allow structural movements and rotations - bearings and isolators
- Protect structure and its content from dynamically applied actions (i.e. wind, earthquake etc.) - isolators, dampers and shock transmitters
- Increase concrete performances thus allowing for larger spans to be reached - post tensioning
TENSA devices are designed to intervene at three building locations:
- FOUNDATION LEVEL
- ROOF LEVEL
- ELEVATION LEVEL (BETWEEN FOUNDATION AND ROOF)
At this location bearings, isolators, elasto-plastic devices and fluid dampers are normally installed.
BEARINGS
Structures, indeed, undergo displacements, rotations and deformations caused by acting loads (of static, dynamic, thermic nature etc.) or by phenomena such as shrinkage and creep, linked to the maturation of materials. Free sliding bearings, which transfer vertical loads, allow rotation between two structural elements and displacements in all plan direction are normally used at isolation level in parallel with rubber and lead rubber Isolators to reduce the isolation system cost and to help the Structural Engineer in finding the coincidence between the center of mass and the center of weight thus avoiding undesired building torsional effects during quake. In case of tensile forces special up-lift bearings resisting tension are designed.
ISOLATORS
Base seismic isolation represents an important tool in the hands of the designers to protect the structural and non-structural components of a construction, not to mention protecting human lives. The isolators limit the acceleration transferred to the structure and reduce inertial stress by increasing the oscillation period. The result is firstly the protection of the structure and the people inside the hospital and secondly the medical equipment protection granting a safe and efficient continuity to the medical activity.
DAMPERS
Dampers are designed to absorb part of the earthquake force. Dampers positioned at foundation/seismic interface level are normally working in parallel with isolators to increase the system global damping thus decreasing the relative forces and displacements.
Dampers may be:
Dampers may be:
- Hydraulic based devices depending on load application velocity, able to dissipate part of the dynamic energy entering into the structure by thermal dissipation
- Elasto plastic based devices depending on the displacement, able to dissipate part of the dynamic energy entering into the structure by yelding of its elasto-plastic components
POST TENSIONING
The TENSA post tensioning systems are meant to give compression stresses to concrete with the use of post tensioning tendons made of steel strands or steel bars.
Related products
