Abstract
Cultural heritage artifacts and buildings are under a constant thread of destruction during devastating earthquakes. Any intervention should be such that it neither violates their form nor changes drastically their structural behavior and should be reversible. In addition, the materials to be used must be compatible with the ones the monument is constructed of. Traditional seismic retrofitting techniques have the disadvantage that most of them violate the above conditions. An alternative approach is the use of innovative seismic-protection systems to enhance the seismic resilience of cultural heritage against the effects of earthquakes, which is reported in this chapter. The potential of seismic-isolation strategy to mitigate the seismic risk of museum artifacts will be first exploited. Subsequently, the state of the art of the use of energy-dissipation devices, such as viscous dampers and shape memory alloys, as well as innovative materials such as FRPs, for the protection of monuments and historic structures will be presented.
TopUse Of Base Isolation For The Seismic Protection Of Museum Artifacts
This section aims at exploiting the potential of seismic-isolation strategy to mitigate the seismic risk of museum artifacts. In fact, application of base-isolation technology to individual elements, such as statues and museum artifacts, is a viable alternative to seismically isolating the entire building—often a significantly more complex and expensive task. The seismic behavior of such objects can be analyzed within the context of rigid-body dynamics. In particular, this section presents the analytical formulation of the rocking response of seismically isolated block-like objects, such as statues (Figure 1), free-standing on the isolation base, subjected to ground excitation. The motion of the system with a large-displacement formulation that combines the highly nonlinear equations of motion is examined, together with a rigorous model governing impact.
Figure 1. Schematic of a base-isolated statue
Key Terms in this Chapter
Reversible Retrofitting: Intervention which can be removed in case that it is proved in the future harmful for a structure.
Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRPs): Is a composite material made of a polymer matrix reinforced with fibers. The fibers are usually glass, carbon, aramid, or basalt.
Strengthening: Intervention with the objective of bringing the structure to a state higher than the one it was designed for.
Emerging Technologies: New materials (e.g. fiber reinforced polymers) or devices (e.g. base-isolation or energy-dissipation) that can be used for the seismic protection of cultural heritage.
Cultural Heritage Buildings: Monuments and historic structures that attest the cultural heritage of a society.
Retrofitting: Intervention on the structural system of a structure at some point of its life-cycle, so as to be able to sustain loads for which it was not designed for.
Shape Memory Alloy (SMA): Alloys that exhibit a special property allowing them to remember and regain their original shape upon a thermal cycle.