Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
Ground motion due to earthquake excitation often induces disastrous disturbances that severely damage structures and their contents. Conventional earthquake-resistant design focuses on the strengthening of structures to avoid collapse, while little attention is given to the prevention of damage. Such an approach makes it almost impossible to construct completely "earthquake proof" structures of reasonable cost.Given the limitations of conventional earthquake resistant design, seismic isolation is explored as an alternative and performance-based design approach to minimize earthquake-induced loads and resulting damage in low to medium-rise buildings. The characteristics, advantages and limitations of seismic isolation are discussed, followed by a demonstration of the capability of seismic isolation to decouple a structure from the damaging effects of ground acceleration. Currently used seismic isolation systems are described in detail. The performance of seismically isolated structures is evaluated and examples of such structures and their response under earthquake action are presented. Finally, a preliminary design methodology for seismically isolated structures is proposed.
The basis of this research work was conducted as part of the Master of Science in CEE at MIT under the supervision of Prof. J. J. Connor. The work is now extended and updated to cover the state of the art in seismic isolation.
The book provides a simple presentation of seismic isolation in a way that both students and practicing engineers may be able to familiarize themselves with this earthquake-resistant design approach.