Active Isolation for Critical Structural Systems

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Base isolation is an attractive strategy for reducing the effects of earthquakes in certain structures and siting situations. The strategy is being implemented around the world and in the United States. This research project considers the feasibility of using a combination of active control and base isolation for the seismic protection of critical structures. Base isolation allows the structure to be uncoupled at the base from the ground motion. When active control is added it should be possible to minimize the absolute accelerations of the structure thus greatly reducing the accelerations and forces experiences by sensitive internal equipment or fragile contents. The research is both practical and experimental. Shake table studies of the combined active control-base isolation methodology are to be carried out using a large scale structural model. The shake table tests are very important in establishing that the theoretical results can be translated into hardware and shows the limits of applicability of the technique.