For the supply of seismic protection devices, EKKAF S.A. cooperates with the Italian company AGOM, who manufactures them in accordance with the European standard EN15129.
For strategic structures, such as hospitals, power plants, control rooms, and primary bridges, the functionality after catastrophic events is a primary goal to be guaranteed in addition to the structural integrity. The seismic isolation design, based on the concept of reducing the seismic energy transferred to structures, has proved to be the most effective design technology for protection against earthquakes; indeed not only the structure’s integrity is guaranteed but also the goods inside.
The whole isolation of a structure is obtained by placing adequate elastic supports in suitable positions in order to disentangle the ground from the structure allowing relative displacements. The isolation principle is very simple: the idea is to shift the structure vibration period from low values (typically ranging from 0.3 to 1 seconds for a fixed base structure) where the ground acceleration is pronounced to longer periods (2-3 seconds) where the acceleration is highly reduced. Additional acceleration reduction can be obtained by adding damping capacity to the isolators (energy dissipation).
The main types of seismic protection devices are: