Ricerc@Sapienza

Base isolation represents a very widely used strategy to mitigate the effects of earthquake excitation on structures. However, it can induce high displacements between the isolation
layer and the ground, which may cause serious damage, and even heavy and dangerous consequences in case of industrial components. Among them, big steel tanks for storage of petroleum
or other chemical products, should be considered very carefully. Moreover, isolation technique

During strong earthquakes, structural pounding may occur between structures and the surrounding moat wall because of the limited separation distance and the deformations of the isolator. An arrangement that favours the solution of this problem is the interposition of bumpers. Thus, the influence of geometrical and mechanical characteristics of isolation and mitigation devices on nonlinear non-smooth response of vibro-impact systems is experimentally and numerically investigated in this paper on the basis of a laboratory campaign of experimental tests and a numerical model.