The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Earthquake hazard reduction in historical buildings using seismic isolation

Garevski, Mihail

UCB/EERC-95/04, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1995-06, 68 pages (620/G27/1995)

First, this paper will outline the traditional methods and materials used in the construction of historic masonry structures. Secondly, a typical damage scenario in the event of an earthquake will be described and analyzed. Then, the principles of base isolation theory and the current hardware available will be presented. Next, a time-history analysis of a historic masonry wall is discussed, comparing the response of a fixed-base versus an isolated wall under a specific earthquake input. Finally, recommendations are made for applying base isolation techniques to historic structures.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-95-04.pdf (7 MB)