The design of a base-isolated structure requires an analysis which considers the behaviour of the structure itself and simultaneously the characteristic of the isolation. The effect of seismic isolation is based on the one hand on the capability of large elastic deformations and on the other hand on the non-elastic absorption of energy. In this paper different methods are compared, how to describe the nonlinear behaviour of the seismic isolators in the computation. Three models have been developed and their effect on the seismic response is considered for typical earthquakes. The discussion of the different types of energy dissipated within an earthquake provides instructive insights into the mode of operation of the base isolation.
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