Energy dissipation as a technological answer to highly demanding design problems

ABSTRACT

The spontaneous idea that most commonly comes to mind to seismic engineer practitioners is that of interpreting an earthquake in terms of forces and deformations induced upon the structures. Actually, forces and displacements are but a mere manifestation of a seismic attack rather than its very essence. An earthquake is an energy phenomenon against which defense etrategies must be organized duly accounting for its intrinsic nature. The paper illustrates how the use of energy concepts makes it possible to delineate an antiseismic design strategy that takes into account the type of structure and yields maximum advantage in terms of existing hardware. It also presents a highly demanding retrofit project in which this design approach is used.(AU)