Seismic Rehabilitation of Existing Reinforced Concrete Buildings with Seismic Isolation: A Case Study

The use of seismic isolation for the seismic rehabilitation of existing buildings is very attractive but often very tricky due to several aspects related to its implementation. In this paper, a case study of seismic rehabilitation of a high-rise residential building with seismic isolation is presented. The building under consideration is located in southern Italy and it is placed next to another building from which it is separated by a gap of 400 mm. In the paper, all the steps of the seismic rehabilitation process are described. First, the target objective of the seismic rehabilitation and the choice of isolation system type and location are discussed. The design of the isolation system, carried out following a direct displacement-based approach, is then examined. Finally, the main phases followed in the installation of the isolation system are described. Some comments on costs and time needed to complete the intervention are also reported.