Isolation and Damping in Seismic Design

Abstract

During the last quarter century seismic engineering has witnessed significant progress through the development of new design strategies. This document illustrates the two basic principles governing said strategies: i.e. Isolation and Damping. Undoubtedly, both principles comprise the most efficient tools available to designers, and they were quickly adopted by the seismic engineering community. So as to make the significance and logic behind this adoption understandable, the paper first summarizes the basic concepts of the energy approach. The document also illustrates how the use of the energy balance equation offers a rational basis for defining a design strategy that takes into account the type of structure, yielding maximum advantage in terms of the existing categories of seismic devices. It should be emphasized that the availability of a number of different types of anti-seismic devices in the market has considerably influenced seismic engineering progress. Without the former, the numerous practical applications observed all over the world today could have never been achieved. Subsequently, the paper also lists the possible design choices the seismic engineer can adopt and indicates on a case per case basis, the categories of devices that can enable their implementation. In this manner, devices are automatically classified according to a logical order as well as by their increasing energy dissipating capacity. In the end, the most commonly used types of devices are briefly described and an interpretation of their functioning from an energy-based approach is givens.