Implimenting the NZSEE Seismic Isolation Guidlines: a practioners view over three new designs

Abstract

The draft seismic isolation guidelines provide a significant step forward in promoting a consistent NZ approach to designing and demonstrating compliance in isolated buildings. This paper provides a practitioners’ point of view of implementing of the guidelines on three new structures currently in design/peer review. Achieving consistency across the chapters, structure types and philosophies takes some interpretation. This paper is intended to provide some assistance to other practitioners navigating the guidelines, and note some important aspects where further development/clarification may be appropriate. Key topics include the scaling of records and the non-directional nature of isolated buildings, scaling ADRS spectra for damping, simplified methods for getting parts/floor specta, and matching risk philosophy with the application of Sp and alpha.