Dual Slab Floor Isolation Technology for Seismic Damage Mitigation

The importance of protection of sensitive instruments, critical equipment, vibration sensitive industrial facilities, to maintain them in operational condition during and after natural disasters like earthquake has been recognized in literature.  This proposed technology for new buildings helps in damage mitigation of critical infrastructure facilities located in a floor by bringing down the response of the slab. In this technology the roof slab is cast in two parts. Top circular part can slide on the bottom part at the curved interacting surface which has been enabled through provision of mini rollers. In order to prevent the movement of the curved slab beyond the allowable limits during earthquake, rubber restrainers are fabricated to the required stiffness and are provided in the middle span of the beams supporting the slab. Preliminary experiments have been carried out at laboratory level to demonstrate the efficacy of the scheme on 3-storey composite frame (steel frame with RC slab) 1.5mx1.5m square in plan. 

Can be implemented in critical facilities viz., new hospital rooms with equipment like MRI scanner, laboratories with sensitive instruments, control rooms with important vibration sensitive industrial facilities and servers 

• Do not require any commercial isolator. It is a part of regular construction.
• Additional cost involved is minimum