Part 1: Theory, analysis, and testing. Introduction

Two basic engineering strategies for the protection of equipment and structures from damages caused by seismic, shock and vibration loadings are, namely, strengthening and isolation. They work on almost totally different principles; the strengthening strategy aims primarily at increasing the ``capacity`` or the ability of the structure to withstand the dynamic loading by incorporating additional structural materials and components, while the isolation strategy focuses on reducing the ``demand`` or the transmitted loading on the structure by adding an isolator or isolation system between the structure and the source of the loading. The isolation strategy is also often used for filtering out unwanted vibrations and noises. In practice, the isolation strategy has the advantage of not depending on alterations to the isolated structure and is often the preferred method for applications in equipment and in some structures. The authors give a preview of the papers to be presented on the following topics: Technical background; Ground motions and structural loading; Vibration control and isolation; Isolation design, analysis, and testing; and Isolation system development and characterization.