A Review of Seismic Isolation for Buildings: Historical Development and Research Needs

Seismic isolation is a technique that has been used around the world to protect building structures, nonstructural components and content from the damaging effects of earthquake ground shaking. This paper summarizes current practices, describes widely used seismic isolation hardware, chronicles the history and development of modern seismic isolation through shake table testing of isolated buildings, and reviews past efforts to achieve three-dimensional seismic isolation. The review of current practices and past research are synthesized with recent developments from full-scale shake table testing to highlight areas where research is needed to achieve full seismic damage protection of buildings. The emphasis of this paper is on the application of passive seismic isolation for buildings primarily as practiced in the United States, though systems used in other countries will be discussed.