Sectional Garage Door Shear-Wall Assembly for Lateral Forces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Garage doors, due to their design, create weak lateral support walls, making buildings prone to collapse during earthquakes and high winds, and retrofitting with conventional methods is costly and disruptive.
Innovation Solution
A system that secures garage door panels to each other and to lateral support columns or channels, using pins, hinges, or cables to maintain a closed configuration and resist shear forces, enhancing the door's structural integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If conventional sectional garage doors are used with minimal wall support, then ease of manufacture and installation is improved, but lateral strength and stability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The garage door is divided into multiple horizontal panels that are interconnected with hinges, allowing each panel to be manufactured separately and assembled into a complete door system that provides both ease of installation and structural strength
Solution Approach 2:
The door panels are merged with lateral support columns and guide tracks to form an integrated structural system where the door itself becomes part of the lateral load-resisting framework, combining the door function with structural support function
2Ease of operation
If garage door opening takes up most of the wall space, then ease of operation and vehicle access is improved, but lateral stability and shear strength deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The solution transitions from relying on two-dimensional wall area for shear strength to utilizing the third dimension by incorporating vertical guide tracks and lateral support columns that extend beyond the wall plane, creating a three-dimensional structural system that provides lateral stability without reducing door opening size
Solution Approach 2:
Lateral support columns and guide tracks serve as intermediary structural elements that mediate between the large door opening and the building's lateral load requirements, transferring shear forces from the door assembly to the building structure without requiring substantial wall area
3Device complexity
If traditional guide tracks without panel retention channels are used, then device complexity is reduced, but reliability under lateral forces deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The guide tracks are designed to serve multiple functions: guiding door panel movement during normal operation and providing lateral retention and support during seismic or high-wind events, making the same structural element useful for both operational convenience and emergency reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The door panel assembly is designed to be dynamic during normal operation, allowing free movement along the guide tracks, but becomes statically restrained under lateral forces when panels are retained within the channels, automatically transitioning between operational flexibility and structural rigidity
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system for securing or buttressing buildings having sectional garage doors against lateral forces as experienced in seismic events or high winds, by releasably securing the panels of the sectional garage door to each other and securing them in a closed position against buttressing columns when the garage door is in its closed configuration, thereby allowing the door to act as a shear wall assembly when closed.