Seismic Risk and Environmentally Friendly Solutions: The Geotechnical Point of View

Over the past 50 years, there has been a tremendous growth in research in the field of seismic geotechnical engineering, producing very valuable results and highlighting the decisive role of the soil filter effect and soil-structure interaction in evaluating structural seismic risk. However, the challenge in assessing and mitigating seismic risk is not entirely over, with the continual opening up of new scenarios. A need to safeguard the ecosystem is encouraging researchers to find new solutions that combine seismic risk mitigation and ecosystem protection. Soil-rubber mixtures (SRM) have emerged as a new technique to improve the soil underneath foundations, so that seismic energy will be partially dissipated within the SRM. The rubber grains are manufactured from scrap tyres, disposal of which has become a severe environmental problem worldwide. SRMs are characterized by low specific weight, high elasticity, low shear modulus, and high damping. The present paper reports some interesting results obtained by the authors as regards seismic microzonation, local site response, and soil-structure interaction. Finally, the paper reports the main results of the first tests performed on a full-scale soil-SRM-structure system and a FEM simulation of these tests.