General classification of seismic protection systems of buildings and structures

Abstract

The issues of ensuring the seismic resistance of buildings and structures hold a leading position despite significant achievements in this area. This is confirmed by the significant loss of human life and destruction caused by strong earthquakes.
 According to the principle of operation (properties of ensuring seismic resistance), all seismic protection systems can be conditionally divided into three groups: traditional, special and combined.
 Traditional methods of seismic protection of buildings and structures are mainly associated with reducing the mass of structures, increasing their strength and stiffness characteristics, as well as with the choice of rational planning and design solutions.
 The second group of seismic protection includes approaches associated with reducing the intensity of seismic loads on buildings and structures. Special seismic protection today is one of the most promising areas in the field of earthquake-resistant construction. The largest subgroup of this seismic protection – this is a passive seismic protection aimed at changing the dynamic scheme of a buildings or structures, which, in turn, is divided into seismic isolation and seismic suppression.
 The combined system implies a combination of traditional and nontraditional seismic protection systems.
 The massive use of seismic protection systems by design engineers is constrained by the lack of practical calculation methods. This is due to the fact that most seismic protection systems are characterized by a nonlinear deformation diagram, which does not allow the use of the standard linear-spectral methodology for the calculation.
 This article clarifies the general classification of seismic protection systems of buildings and structures. The use of seismic protection systems during strong earthquakes can significantly reduce the amplitude of vibrations, provide less damage to buildings and structures. Seismic protection systems are one of the most effective ways to increase the level of seismic resistance of buildings and structures, although the share of seismic-protected buildings in construction in relation to traditional ones is still very small.