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An alternative approach for the seismic rehabilitation of existing RC buildings using seismic isolation

Usually, buildings with seismic isolation are designed to comply with an operational building performance level after strong earthquakes. This approach, however, may limit the use of seismic isolation for the seismic rehabilitation of existing buildings with low lateral strength or substandard details, because it often requires invasive strengthening measures in the superstructure or the use of expensive custom‐made devices. In this paper, an alternative approach for the seismic rehabilitation of existing buildings with seismic isolation, based on the acceptance of limited plastic deformations in the superstructure under strong earthquakes, is proposed and then applied to a real case study, represented by a four‐storey RC frame building. Nonlinear response‐time histories analyses of an accurate model of the case‐study building are carried out to evaluate the seismic performances of the structure, comparing different rehabilitation strategies with and without seismic isolation. Initial costs of the intervention and possible (future) repair costs are then estimated. Based on the results of this study, values of the behavior factor (i.e. response modification factor) higher than those adopted in the current codes for base‐isolated buildings are tentatively proposed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.