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’ team tested a range of “breakaway” wall designs in a
tank with waves up to 2 metres high. Plywood panels 6 millimetres thick,
attached to stilts with…
To continue reading, today with our introductory offers
Advertisement
More from New Scientist
Explore the latest news, articles and features

Physics
The 50-year quest to create a quantum spin liquid may finally be over
Features

Technology
Backlash builds over NHS plan to hide source code from AI hacking risk
News

ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû1000¼¯ºÏ
Hantavirus: Where has the deadly cruise ship outbreak come from?
News

ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû1000¼¯ºÏ
Woman in cancer remission without treatment in highly unusual case
News
Popular articles
Trending New Scientist articles
1
Man destined to get Alzheimer’s saved by accidental heat therapy
2
Woman in cancer remission without treatment in highly unusual case
3
A lost ancient script reveals how writing as we know it really began
4
We have figured out a new way to send messages into the past
5
Prebiotic chewing gum could be helpful for gum disease
6
Hantavirus: Where has the deadly cruise ship outbreak come from?
7
Honey has been used as medicine for centuries – does it really work?
8
Weird 'transdimensional' state of matter is neither 2D nor 3D
9
The greatest David Attenborough documentaries you really need to watch
10
300-year-old experiment could become world's best dark matter detector