Assessment of Geotechnical Seismic Isolation (GSI) as a Mitigation Technique for Seismic Hazard Events

Abstract

Geotechnical seismic isolation (GSI) has emerged as a potential technique to mitigate the effects of earthquakes, with many applications to structural configurations, such as bridges and buildings. It consists of absorbing the seismic energy from the soil to the superstructure by interposing a superficial soil layer in order to reduce the accelerations that filter from the soil to the structure. This mitigation technique is particularly suitable in developing countries since GSIs are low-cost seismic isolation systems that through relatively simple manufacturing processes allow to safe costs and stimulate many applications. The presented study aimed to perform 3D numerical finite element models that overcome the previous contributions by performing several structural configurations. Several historical earthquakes are considered in this paper, and the results may be applied to drive general assessments of the technique in case of future seismic hazards.