Need for an adequate seismic monitoring of seismically isolated buildings to ensure safety during their life

To check the benefits of anti-seismic (AS) devices in terms of reduction of the seismic response of structures, adequate seismic monitoring (SM) systems should be widely installed. This applies especially to the structures protected by seismic isolation (SI) and, among these, at least to the strategic or public ones. In addition, SM is essential to verify that the design features of the AS devices and (especially for the isolated structures) of other important construction details (protections of structural gaps, interface elements) remain unchanged during the entire structure life. In fact, depending on the earthquake levels that may strike the structure site, appropriate actions concerning the SI and other AS devices, as well as said further construction details, shall be undertaken. Some important applications of SM systems, in particular (but not only) to seismically isolated buildings, were recently undertaken in Italy. This paper provides details on the previously mentioned actions and the minimum features that a SM system shall have, based on the experience of authors, in particular that concerning the structural safety certification of some important buildings protected by means of SI. The first applications of SM systems that have been undertaken in Italy for such buildings (the complex including the new primary school in San Giuliano di Puglia and two buildings of the new Civil Defence Centre of Umbria Region in Foligno) are also shortly described, by mentioning the first data that already became available in a few small earthquakes. Finally, the importance of dynamic characterization of existing constructions to allow for their reliable retrofit design is stressed, based on an example concerning three dwelling buildings which had been damaged by the 2009 Abruzzo earthquake and were recently retrofitted using SI. © 2015, International Society for Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure, ISHMII. All rights reserved.