Passive isolation systems are an established solution for the design of civil engineering structures that are required to provide superior performances in the case of a seismic event. Although their application to the seismic protection of bridges is currently limited, isolation systems are likely to become more widespread in the design of strategic infrastructures and facilities. In this work numerical investigations on the ultimate limit state conditions of filled high damping rubber bearings under cyclic shear loading are presented, focusing on the influence of the axial load with respect to the device
