Base isolation

Educational level: this is a research resource.

Shake-table testing of two building models at CSUN. The right one is equipped with a base isolation [1].

Base isolation or seismic isolation is a collection of special units in a building resting on its foundation to provide separation of the building from the shaking ground thus improving its seismic performance. Base isolation takes 7 months to build. .

Basic parts of base isolation system

Base isolation system consists of isolation units with or without isolation components, where:

1. Isolation units are the basic elements of base isolation system which provide the mentioned separation effect to a building structure.

2. Isolation components are the connections between isolation units and other parts of the building having no separation effect of their own.

Famous base-isolated buildings

• 
  Pasadena City Hall, CA
• 
  San Francisco City Hall, CA
• 
  Salt Lake City/County Building, Utah
• 
  Municipal Services Build, Glendale, CA

History

From the very beginning, the theory of base isolation rested on two pillars: heavy damping and frequency separation. Unfortunately, nobody paid any attention that the heavy damping was a sort of a strong connection between a substructure and superstructure, and that the idea of decoupling them with the help of such connections was of no good . Anyway, to virtually test-drive any design concept of base isolation, some online help is available now .

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Seismic fitness.

Other websites

Look up Base isolation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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