INCREASING SAFETY OF STRUCTURES IN SEISMIC AREAS: THE BASE ISOLATION CHALLENGE

Seismic isolation technology has gained great popularity in the last decade as one of the measures for seismic protection of structures. Base isolation is currently an active and expanding subject area supported by performance-based earthquake engineering methods and the development of new materials and techniques The paper, based on the most recent authors’ first hand experiences, presents and discusses some significant applications of seismic vibration passive control systems to civil structures and industrial components, with particular emphasis on the reasons for base isolation and the implementation techniques.