I don’t know if it needs it’s own category, but I thought a counter topic to the Failures & Disasters area might be of interest on the forum. Feel free to add other instances of notable successful engineering.
The mass damper in the Taipei 101 skyscraper doing its job during an earthquake
That is impressive. I really like that they made it part of the architecture inside the building, rather than a hidden function.
Impressive indeed!!
Noticed what appears to by hydraulic cylinders under the mass damper, so an internet search revealed:
A successful test case for humankind in terms of how we may be able to stave off a potential threat.
NASA’s DART Mission Hits Asteroid in First-Ever Planetary Defense Test
I success story amongst the carnage of Hurricane Ian in Florida this past week. A town fully powered by solar operated by FPL and designed for resiliency fared remarkably well through Hurricane Ian.
Wildfire came right up to my town last night but was fought off. Seems like the homes in the neighboring town which are situated in very wooded locations were also saved by these “Structure Protection Units” which are some sort of sprinkler trailers.
About 70 homes in Manchester Township and another 100 in nearby Lakehurst had to be evacuated but all of those structures appeared to be safe by Wednesday morning.
“The structure protection units for the fire companies did an outstanding job,” Manchester Police Chief Robert Dolan said.
“They did a great job of protecting those homes. So without those efforts … it could have been a lot worse.”
So just a shout out to progress and good execution of a plan.
Very cool, first I’ve heard of those. This site has some pics that helped me understand it. Plus, this one showed a field set-up:
