INSPIRE · INNOVATIVE GROUND INTERFACE CONCEPTS FOR STRUCTURE PROTECTION

IINSPIRE aims to foster a new generation of highly qualified researchers and engineers, which will create a critical mass kernel, able to implement a holistic and novel soil-foundation-structure concept for the efficient protection of structures from all ground induced hazards, including earthquakes and all other sources of low-frequency noise and vibration excitations. This concept offers a drastic breakthrough over the existing approaches in crucial aspects:A)Wave inhibition capabilities over broadband low-frequency excitation in all three spatial directions B)General applicability to broad classes of structures and infrastructures C)Simple, reliable and resilient design, leading to easy and low-cost implementation and maintenanceINSPIRE mainly relies on recent innovative scientific and technological concepts, mainly developed within the broad concept of meta-materials. The notion of “meta-materials” refers to natural or artificial materials or structures which exhibit extraordinary properties for inhibiting or conditioning wave propagation in all spatial directions over broad frequency bands. Quite recently, the feasibility of the application of meta-material concepts has been also demonstrated for seismic and infrasound waves. These general developments of metamaterials will be further enriched and advanced through novel absorption and isolation concepts, such as negative effective mass and stiffness