Feasibility Investigation of Superelastic Effect Devices for Seismic Isolation Applications

The objective of this work is to investigate the feasibility of a new seismic isolation device concept, in which the restoring force is given by the superelastic effect of shape memory alloys. Seismic isolation is an option for passive protection of structure when an earthquake occurs, because it modifies the structural global response and improves performance. Dynamic responses of proposed innovative SMA isolation system and of traditional bearing device are compared through dynamic time history analyses. Results show that the SMA system is effective in reducing force and displacement demands, dissipating the input seismic energy and limiting the residual displacements.