The 10 m prototype facility at the Albert–Einstein-institute (AEI) in Hanover, Germany, employs three large seismic attenuation systems to reduce mechanical motion. The AEI seismic-attenuation-system (AEI-SAS) uses mechanical anti-springs in order to achieve resonance frequencies below 0.5 Hz. This system provides passive isolation from ground motion by a factor of about 400 in the horizontal d...

An innovative multiple isolation building system is proposed, and the influence of hardening in seismic isolators on the response of a multiple isolation building is investigated by shaking table vibration tests for a scaled structural model. From the observation in recent earthquake disasters in far-fault ground motions, e.g., the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake, a significant ...

This paper presents a comparative seismic performance assessment of superelastic-friction base isolator (S-FBI) systems in improving the response of bridges under near-field earthquakes. The S-FBI system consists of a steel-Teflon sliding bearing and a superelastic shape memory alloy (SMA) device. The other isolation systems considered here are lead rubber bearing (LRB), friction pendulum syste...

Masonry structures are complex systems that require a thorough and detailed knowledge and information regarding their behaviour under seismic excitations. Appropriate modelling of a masonry structure is a prerequisite for a reliable earthquake resistant design or assessment. However, modelling a real structure to a robust quantitative (mathematical) representation is a very difficult, complex a...

The Hydraulic External Pre-Isolator (HEPI) is the first 6 degrees of freedom active seismic isolation system implemented at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO). Implementation was first completed at the LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) prior to LIGO’s 5th science run, successfully cutting down the disturbance seen by LLO’s suspended optics in the two most prominent s...

A ‘‘smart’’ base isolation strategy is proposed and shown to effectively protect structures against extreme earthquakes without sacrificing performance during the more frequent, moderate seismic events. The proposed smart base isolation system is composed of conventional low-damping elastomeric bearings and ‘‘smart’’ controllable ~semiactive! dampers, such as magnetorheological fluid dampers. T...

In 1993, a project began at the University at Buffalo under the title “Longevity and Reliability of Sliding Seismic Isolation Systems” with the support of MCEER. The objectives of the project were then defined as the collection of laboratory and field data on the behavior of sliding bearings and the qualitative prediction of the long-term frictional properties of these bearings. In 1995, the au...