STATE-OF-THE-ART OF RESEARCH ON THE BUILDING STRUCTURE ISOLATION TECHNOLOGIES

The isolation technologies elongate the natural vibration period of the structures and provide appropriate damping by setting the isolation devices at the bottom or the middle story of the buildings, so that the response of the structures can be greatly reduced. The technologies can effectively protect the safety and the functionality of the buildings during and after the earthquake. At present, the isolation technologies have been widely used in residential buildings, hospitals, schools, museums, libraries, et al. The seismic isolation technologies are expected to have wider application in the near future due to the release of the regulation on seismic fortification. Base-isolated structures will be used from low-rise, simple buildings to high-rise, complex buildings. The commonly used isolation devices have some shortcomings, such as insufficient tensile capacity, insufficient vibration reduction effect to vertical earthquake or vertical environment vibration, narrow control frequency band, low robustness and difficulty to be monitored. Therefore, many scholars have carried out in-depth research to overcome the above shortcomings, and developed uplift-restraint bearings, three-dimensional isolation bearings, semi-active control isolation bearings and healthy monitoring systems for isolation devices, and provided solutions for extending the application of isolation technologies. The relevant research currently mainly focuses on the performance of the new isolation devices. In the future, the influence of the new isolation devices on the buildings should be considered comprehensively and the design method should be developed, while the demonstration engineering application should be put forward to promote the isolation technology.