Structural Control for Buildings (page 3 of 13) 512 latter 1s called as passive control through energy dissipators. 3.1 Base Isolation Strong ground motiens recorded during earthquakes indicate that seismic vibrations are predominant in the period range of 0.1 sec to 1.0 sec. Obviously, buildings whose fundamental natural periods fall in this range are more vulnerable to damage. Base isolation in the past attempts to modify the fundamental lateral natural period of buildings to values beyond this range (Figure 3). Thus, the effective respons~ of the building is significantly reduced. This shift in the fundamental natural period of the bullding to values greater material between the than 1.0 sec is achieved by placing a relatively flexible foundation and the building (Figure 4). This flexible material has large strength and stiffness in the vertical direction associated with the transfer of gravity loads on the building. However, it 4s very compliant in the lateral direction. Elastomeric bearing pads, commonly used for bridge bearings, qualify as a material with the above desired characteristics. Owing to their low stiffness in the lateral direction, the elastomeric bearing pads create a considerable increase in fundamental lateral natural period of the building. Countries with advanced seismic codal provisions have already started using these devices. Their design codes, ,e.g., UBC 1994 [1], provide guidelines for the design of these devices. Base isolation is advantageous only for some buildings and that too under certain conditions. For buildings whose fundamental lateral natural periods are already beyond 1 sec, 1.e., buildings which are already very flexible, base isolation may not be very effective. Typically, buildings with 6 to 10 storeys are good candidates to employ base Isolation on. Also, in buildings situated on soft soil sites, where high frequencies of the ground motion are anyway filtered out by the time they reach the base of the building, base isolation may not be effective. Besides elastomeric bearing pads, simple sliding surfaces to isolate a building have been investigated into. These are called friction base isolators’ (FBI). A combination of the above two devices, eee