Recently, seismically isolated buildings are required to secure a safety margin against extreme ground motions. A possible countermeasure is to install a fail-safe mechanism in the seismic isolation layer. When the seismic isolation layer deforms beyond a certain displacement, the fail-safe mechanism is activated to prevent excessive displacement. This study investigates the influence of the hysteresis characteristics of the fail-safe mechanism using steel members on the seismic response characteristics of seismically isolated buildings.
