Modern Seismic Protection Systems for Civil and Industrial Structures

The limits of the conventional fixed-base seismic design of structures are stressed, together with the capability of the modern seismic vibration passive control (SVPC) techniques to overcome such limits, for both new and existing constructions. The main features of such techniques (seismic isolation, energy dissipation and those using shock transmitters and shape memory alloys) are summarized. The history and worldwide stateof-the-art on their application is reported, especially for buildings, focusing on the most recent achievements and based on very recent information mainly provided by a just published book and reviews written by the author of this paper. The SVPC systems that are the most popular in the various countries are mentioned, together with future trends. In particular, details are given on the history of application of the such systems in Italy, which is the author homeland, to stress the leadership it achieved in the development and application of the SVPC systems at European level and the contribution provided by ENEA, as well as the key role plaid by the availability and features of specific design rules on the success of the SVPC systems. Such a key role has also been confirmed by the analysis of the reasons for the different penetration of these systems in the other countries.