Isolation of a structure lying on an elastic foundation to earthquake vibrations

This paper deals with the efficiency characterization of an elastic mattress used to protect a structure embedded in soil. Ground vibrations are caused by a buried excitation acting with low frequencies and simulating an earthquake excitation. A finite element method (F.E.M.) is performed to investigate the effect of geometrical and material parameters of the mattress. The efficiency criteria is defined by the ratio between the structure displacements with and without the elastic foundation.