Passive isolation systems available, suffer from certain limitations, the most important of which is the impossibility of varying their intrinsic characteristics to meet the demands of actual input types that are difficult to predict. The resulting poor performance is a problem particularly for certain strategic facilities, such as emergency centres and hospitals. Additionally, there are structures (such as tanks) having a varying mass, and thus needing an isolation system with the variable stiffness.
The scope of the Project is to solve the above problems through the development of
1) an improved smart elastomer whose stiffness is controlled by means of a magnetic field;
2) semi-active seismic isolators able to maintain the specified degree of protection independently of the level of the seismic attack or changes in critical parameters;
3 ) variable stiffness dampers for mitigation of ground-borne vibrations.