• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2001.09a
• /
• pp.415-422
• /
• 2001

In this paper, the experimental study was carried out in order to compare the mechanical characteristics of multi-layer elastomeric isolation hearings where the reinforceing elements steel plates case and fiber-reinforcement case. Fiber-reinforced isolater which has the same dimension as the steel reinforced isolator had shown better efficiency in effective damping than NRB. The compression test has shown the corresponding results with the theoretical vertical stiffness in the case of flexible reinforcement. The fiber-reinforced isolator will be significantly lighter and could lead to a much less labor intensive manufacturing process.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.381-399
• /
• 2005

Base isolation technologies have been proven to be very efficient in protecting structures from seismic hazards during experimental and theoretical studies. In recent years, there have been more and more engineering applications using base isolators to upgrade the seismic resistibility of structures. Optimum design of the base isolator can lessen the undesirable seismic hazard with the most efficiency. Hence, tracing the nonlinear behavior of the base isolator with good accuracy is important in the engineering profession. In order to predict the nonlinear behavior of base isolated structures precisely, hundreds even thousands of degrees-of-freedom and iterative algorithm are required for nonlinear time history analysis. In view of this, a simple and feasible exact formulation without any iteration has been proposed in this study to calculate the seismic responses of structures with base isolators. Comparison between the experimental results from shaking table tests conducted at National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering in Taiwan and the analytical results show that the proposed method can accurately simulate the seismic behavior of base isolated structures with elastomeric bearings. Furthermore, it is also shown that the proposed method can predict the nonlinear behavior of the VCFPS isolated structure with accuracy as compared to that from the nonlinear finite element program. Therefore, the proposed concept can be used as a simple and practical tool for engineering professions for designing the elastomeric bearing as well as sliding bearing.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.353-363
• /
• 2017

The present study considers a multi-span continuous bridge, isolated by lead rubber bearing (LRB). Dynamic soilstructure interaction (SSI) is modelled with the help of a simplified, sway-rocking model for different types of soil. It is well understood from the literature that SSI influences the structural responses and the isolator performance. However, the abovementioned effect of SSI also depends on the earthquake ground motion properties. It is very important to understand how the interaction between soil and structure varies with the earthquake ground motion characteristics but, as far as the knowledge of the authors go, no study has been carried out to investigate this effect. Therefore, the objectives of the present study are to investigate the influence of earthquake ground motion characteristics on: (a) the responses of a multi span bridge (isolated and non-isolated), (b) the performance of the isolator and, most importantly, (c) the soil-structure interaction. Statistical analyses are conducted by considering 14 earthquakes which are selected in such a way that they can be categorized into three frequency content groups according to their peak ground acceleration to peak ground velocity (PGA/PGV) ratio. Lumped mass model of the bridge is developed and time history analyses are carried out by solving the governing equations of motion in the state space form. The performance of the isolator is studied by comparing the responses of the bridge with those of the corresponding uncontrolled bridge (i.e., non-isolated bridge). On studying the effect of earthquake motions, it is observed that the earthquake ground motion characteristics affect the interaction between soil and structure in such a way that the responses decrease with increase in frequency content of the earthquake for all the types of soil considered. The reverse phenomenon is observed in case of the isolator performance where the control efficiencies increase with frequency content of earthquake.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.47-62
• /
• 1998

The laminated elastomeric bearing and the lead-rubber bearing were designed to isolate one bay-two story steel frame which is designed for only gravity load. The seismic performance is evaluated for the designed steel frame before and after application of these seismic isolators between the super structure and the foundation. These isolators can improve the seismic capacity of the steel frame. Especially, by inserting the lead plug into the center of the laminated elastomeric bearing, the initial stiffness of th bearing can be increased, thus rather large lateral displacement can be prevented under the frequent service lateral load. During the strong earthquake, yielding of the lead can increase the capacity of the energy dissipation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.303-309
• /
• 2017

Structural control through seismic isolation using elastomeric rubber bearing, which is also known as High Damping Rubber Bearing (HDRB), has seen an increase in use to provide protective from earthquake, especially for new buildings in earthquake zones. Besides, HDRB has also been used in structural rehabilitation of older yet significant buildings, such as museums and palaces. However, the present design approach applied in normal practice has often resulted in dissimilar HDRB dimension requirement between structural designers and bearing manufacturers mainly due to ineffective communication. Therefore, in order to ease the design process, most HDRB manufacturers have come up with catalogs that list all necessary and relevant product lines specifically for structural engineers to choose from. In fact, these catalogs contain physical dimension, compression property, shear characteristic, and most importantly, the total rubber thickness. Nonetheless, other complicated issues, such as the relationship between target isolation period and displacement demand (which determines the total rubber thickness), are omitted due to cul-de-sac fixing of these values in the catalogs. As such, this paper presents a formula, which is derived and extended from the present design approach, in order to offer a simple guideline for engineers to estimate the required HDRB size. This improved design formula successfully minimizes the discrepancies stumbled upon among structural designers, builders, and rubber bearing manufacturers in terms of variation order issue at the designing stage because manufacturer of isolator is always the last to be appointed in most projects.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.761-783
• /
• 2006

The enlargement of interest in base isolators as an earthquake-proof design strategy has dramatically accelerated experimental studies of elastomeric bearings worldwide. In this paper, a new base isolator concept that is a hybrid system of rubber bearings is proposed. Uniaxial, biaxial, and triaxial shaking table tests are also performed to study the seismic behavior of a 0.4-scale three-story isolated steel structure in the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering in Taiwan. Experimental results demonstrate that structures with a hybrid system of rubber bearings composed of stirruped rubber bearings and laminated rubber bearings can actually decrease the seismic responses of the superstructure. It has been proved through the shaking table tests that the proposed hybrid system of rubber bearings is a very promising tool to enhance the seismic resistance of structures. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the proposed analytical model in this paper can predict the mechanical behavior of the hybrid system of rubber bearings and seismic responses of the base-isolated structures.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.46 no.5
• /
• pp.569-580
• /
• 2014

Seismic isolation is a viable strategy for protecting safety-related nuclear structures from the effects of moderate to severe earthquake shaking. Although seismic isolation has been deployed in nuclear structures in France and South Africa, it has not seen widespread use because of limited new build nuclear construction in the past 30 years and a lack of guidelines, codes and standards for the analysis, design and construction of isolation systems specific to nuclear structures. The funding by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission of a research project to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and MCEER/University at Buffalo facilitated the writing of a soon-to-be-published NUREG on seismic isolation. Funding of MCEER by the National Science Foundation led to research products that provide the technical basis for a new section in ASCE Standard 4 on the seismic isolation of safety-related nuclear facilities. The performance expectations identified in the NUREG and ASCE 4 for seismic isolation systems, and superstructures and substructures are described in the paper. Robust numerical models capable of capturing isolator behaviors under extreme loadings, which have been verified and validated following ASME protocols, and implemented in the open source code OpenSees, are introduced.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.513-528
• /
• 2018

A typical viable technique to decrease the seismic response of liquid storage tanks is to isolate them at the base. Base-isolation systems are an efficient and feasible solution to reduce the vulnerability of structures in high seismic risk zones. Nevertheless, when liquid storage tanks are under long-period shaking, the base-isolation systems could have different impacts. These kinds of earthquakes can damage the tanks readily. Hence, the seismic behaviour and vibration of cylindrical liquid storage tanks, subjected to earthquakes, is of paramount importance, and it is investigated in this paper. The Finite Element Method is used to evaluate seismic response in addition to the reduction of excessive liquid sloshing in the tank when subjected to the long-period ground motion. The non-linear stress-strain behaviour pertaining to polymers and rubbers is implemented while non-linear contact elements are employed to describe the 3-D surface-to-surface contact. Therefore, Nonlinear Procedures are used to investigate the fluid-structure interactions (FSI) between liquid and the tank wall while there is incompressible liquid. Part I, examines the effect of the flexibility of the isolation system and the tank aspect ratio (height to radius) on the tank wall radial displacements of the tank wall and the liquid sloshing heights. Maximum stress and base shear force for various aspect ratios and different base-isolators, which are subjected to three seismic conditions, will be discussed in Part II. It is shown that the composite-base isolator is much more effective than other isolators due to its high flexibility and strength combined. Moreover, the base isolators may decrease the maximum level pertaining to radial displacement.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.133-143
• /
• 2015

It is very important to assure the seismic performance of equipment as well as building structures in seismic design of nuclear power plant(NPP). Seismically isolated structures may be reviewed mainly on the horizontal seismic responses. Considering the equipment installed in the NPP, the vertical earthquake responses of the structure also should be reviewed. This study has investigated the vertical seismic demand of seismically isolated structure by lead rubber bearings(LRBs). For the numerical evaluation of seismic demand of the base isolated NPP, the Korean standard nuclear power plant (APR1400) is modeled as 4 different models, which are supported by LRBs to have 4 different horizontal target periods. Two real earthquake records and artificially generated input motions have been used as inputs for earthquake analyses. For the study, the vertical floor response spectra(FRS) were generated at the major points of the structure. As a results, the vertical seismic responses of horizontally isolated structure have largely increased due to flexibility of elastomeric isolator. The vertical stiffness of the bearings are more carefully considered in the seismic design of the base-isolated NPPs which have the various equipment inside.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.185-196
• /
• 2019

One of the shortcomings of seismic bridge design codes is the lack of clarity in defining the role of different seismic isolation systems with linear or nonlinear behavior in terms of R-factor. For example, based on AASHTO guide specifications for seismic isolation design, R-factor for all substructure elements of isolated bridges should be half of those expressed in the AASHTO standard specifications for highway bridges (i.e., R=3 for single columns and R=5 for multiple column bent) but not less than 1.50. However, no distinction is made between two commonly used types of seismic isolation devices, i.e., elastomeric rubber bearing (ERB) with linear behavior, and lead rubber bearing (LRB) with nonlinear behavior. In this paper, five existing bridges located in Iran with two types of deck-pier connection including ERB and LRB isolators, and two bridge models with monolithic deck-pier connection are developed and their R-factor values are assessed based on the Uang's method. The average R-factors for the bridges with ERB isolators are calculated as 3.89 and 4.91 in the longitudinal and transverse directions, respectively, which are not in consonance with the AASHTO guide specifications for seismic isolation design (i.e., R=3/2=1.5 for the longitudinal direction and R=5/2=2.5 for the transverse direction). This is a clear indicator that the code-prescribed R-factors are conservative for typical bridges with ERB isolators. Also for the bridges with LRB isolators, the average computed R-factors equal 1.652 and 2.232 in the longitudinal and transverse directions, respectively, which are in a good agreement with the code-specified R-factor values. Moreover, in the bridges with monolithic deck-pier connection, the average R-factor in the longitudinal direction is obtained as 2.92 which is close to the specified R-factor in the bridge design codes (i.e., 3), and in the transverse direction is obtained as 2.41 which is about half of the corresponding R-factor value in the specifications (i.e., 5).