New Challenges in the Development and Application of Seismic Isolation

The number of structures protected by isolation systems has increased remarkably in the last decades, for both new constructions and retrofits of existing ones. Initially, applications referred mainly to strategic and relevant structures, for which a higher level of safety is required, then also to residential buildings. In Italy, great impulses to the use of base isolation were given by the 2002 Molise earthquake and the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake. The Italian code allows to take into account the reduction of the actual seismic actions in the design of structures protected by new anti-seismic technologies, and this encourage their use. Afterwards, seismic isolation has always been considered, especially for public buildings, in the reconstruction after the recent seismic events. Among the most interesting topics studied in the last years, two of them are presented in this paper. The first one refers to the use of seismic isolation in the retrofit of existing buildings, keeping them operational during the works. The second topic refers to the actual behaviour observed under far fault earthquakes.