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Institute of Mechanics and Seismic Stability of Structures

Self-assessment

Is my building earthquake-resistant?

Answer three questions to get an approximate vulnerability class of your building on the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS-98).

What is the building made of?
Was the building designed to seismic codes?

Check the design documents, the year of construction or ask the building manager. If unsure, choose "Don't know".

Which of these apply to your building?

Earthquake simulator: conventional vs base-isolated building

Two identical 5-storey buildings feel the same ground shaking. The second one sits on flexible base isolators. Change the frequency and strength of shaking and compare: when the frequency is close to the building's natural frequency (~2 Hz), resonance occurs.

Conventional building
Top floor acceleration0.00 g Interstorey drift0.0 cm
Base-isolated
Top floor acceleration0.00 g Interstorey drift0.0 cm

Simplified teaching model: each floor is a mass, storeys are springs and dampers (conventional building period ~0.5 s, 5% damping; isolated building period ~2.5 s, 15% isolator damping). Displacements are exaggerated for visibility. Real buildings are analysed in far more detail according to building codes.