Survey on Major Worldwide Regulations on Seismic Base Isolation of Buildings

Abstract

Base isolation solutions are efficient alternatives for seismic protection of buildings and for enhancing resilient capacity. Currently, seismic isolation is focused principally on the critical infrastructure of public health, transportation, education, etc. Despite these considerations, the current worldwide implementation of this technology is still insufficient. A crucial step to be taken into the promotion of any earthquake-resistant construction technique is the development of design codes that, although being inspired in the major international regulations, account for the local seismic effects, among other factors. With the aim of assisting code developers, this work analyzes and compares the code requirements for seismic base isolation in Japan, China, Russia, Italy, USA, and Chile. Two prototype seismically isolated hospital buildings located in high and medium seismicity zones (Los Angeles and New Mexico, respectively) were analyzed and designed with the examined codes. It is concluded that there are high differences among some of their requirements even though the technology used is the same.