• Title/Summary/Keyword: isolators

Search Result 205, Processing Time 0.021 seconds

Seismic Response of Seismically-Isolated Nuclear Power Plants considering Age-related Degradation of High Damping Rubber Bearing (고감쇠고무 적층받침의 경년열화를 고려한 원전구조물의 지진응답)

  • Park, Junhee;Choun, Young-Sun;Choi, In-Kil
    • Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
    • /
    • v.26 no.2
    • /
    • pp.131-138
    • /
    • 2013
  • The high damping rubber bearings contributed to reduce a seismic force transmitted to upper structures, the material properties of rubber changes with time and the rubber with age-related degradation can affect the seismic response of structures and equipments. Therefore the seismic response of structure considering age-related degradation of isolators should be evaluated. In this paper, the stiffness and damping for isolators were defined using the aging data proposed by other researchers. The reactor containment building and the auxiliary building were selected to conduct the nonlinear analysis and the natural frequency, maximum responses, floor response spectrum(FRS) were evaluated with time using the four earthquakes with different frequency contents. According to the analysis results, the seismic responses are increased by the age-related degradation of isolators and the detail inspections should be conducted up to 20 years because it was presented that the change of FRS was high during this period.

The effect of composite-elastomer isolation system on the seismic response of liquid-storage tanks: Part I

  • Shahrjerdi, A.;Bayat, M.
    • 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.

Lyapunov-based Semi-active Control of Adaptive Base Isolation System employing Magnetorheological Elastomer base isolators

  • Chen, Xi;Li, Jianchun;Li, Yancheng;Gu, Xiaoyu
    • Earthquakes and Structures
    • /
    • v.11 no.6
    • /
    • pp.1077-1099
    • /
    • 2016
  • One of the main shortcomings in the current passive base isolation system is lack of adaptability. The recent research and development of a novel adaptive seismic isolator based on magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) material has created an opportunity to add adaptability to base isolation systems for civil structures. The new MRE based base isolator is able to significantly alter its shear modulus or lateral stiffness with the applied magnetic field or electric current, which makes it a competitive candidate to develop an adaptive base isolation system. This paper aims at exploring suitable control algorithms for such adaptive base isolation system by developing a close-loop semi-active control system for a building structure equipped with MRE base isolators. The MRE base isolator is simulated by a numerical model derived from experimental characterization based on the Bouc-Wen Model, which is able to describe the force-displacement response of the device accurately. The parameters of Bouc-Wen Model such as the stiffness and the damping coefficients are described as functions of the applied current. The state-space model is built by analyzing the dynamic property of the structure embedded with MRE base isolators. A Lyapunov-based controller is designed to adaptively vary the current applied to MRE base isolator to suppress the quake-induced vibrations. The proposed control method is applied to a widely used benchmark base-isolated structure by numerical simulation. The performance of the adaptive base isolation system was evaluated through comparison with optimal passive base isolation system and a passive base isolation system with optimized base shear. It is concluded that the adaptive base isolation system with proposed Lyapunov-based semi-active control surpasses the performance of other two passive systems in protecting the civil structures under seismic events.

Seismic response variation of multistory base-isolated buildings applying lead rubber bearings

  • Islam, A.B.M. Saiful;Al-Kutti, Walid A.
    • Computers and Concrete
    • /
    • v.21 no.5
    • /
    • pp.495-504
    • /
    • 2018
  • The possibility of earthquakes in vulnerable regions indicates that efficient technique is required for seismic protection of buildings. During the recent decades, the concept is moving towards the insertion of base isolation on seismic prone buildings. So, investigation of structural behavior is a burning topic for buildings to be isolated in base level by bearing device. This study deals with the incorporation of base isolation system and focuses the changes of structural responses for different types of Lead Rubber Bearing (LRB) isolators. A number of sixteen model buildings have been simulated selecting twelve types of bearing systems as well as conventional fixed-base (FB) scheme. The superstructures of the high-rise buildings are represented by finite element assemblage adopting multi-degree of freedoms. Static and dynamic analyses are carried out for FB and base isolated (BI) buildings. The dynamic analysis in finite element package has been performed by the nonlinear time history analysis (THA) based on the site-specific seismic excitation and compared employing eminent earthquakes. The influence of the model type and the alteration in superstructure behavior of the isolated buildings have been duly assessed. The results of the 3D multistory structures show that the lateral forces, displacement, inertia and story accelerations of the superstructure of the seismic prone buildings are significantly reduced due to bearing insertion. The nonlinear dynamic analysis shows 12 to 40% lessening in base shear when LRB is incorporated leading to substantial allowance of horizontal displacement. It is revealed that the LRB isolators might be potential options to diminish the respective floor accelerations, inertia, displacements and base shear whatever the condition coincides. The isolators with lower force intercept but higher isolation period is found to be better for decreasing base shear, floor acceleration and inertia force leading to reduction of structural and non-structural damage. However, LRB with lower isolator period seems to be more effective in dropping displacement at bearing interface aimed at reducing horizontal shift of building structure.

Performance Enhancement of Pneumatic Vibration Isolation Tables in Low Frequency by Active Control (공압능동제어를 이용한 저주파 영역에서의 공압제진대 제진성능 개선에 대한 연구)

  • Shin, Yun-Ho;Oh, Ki-Yong;Lee, Jeung-Hoon;Kim, Kwang-Joon
    • Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
    • /
    • v.17 no.1 s.118
    • /
    • pp.72-79
    • /
    • 2007
  • As environmental vibration requirements on precision equipment become more stringent, use of pneumatic isolators has become more popular and their performance is subsequently required to be further improved. Dynamic performance of passive pneumatic isolators is related to various design parameters in a complicated manner and, hence, is very limited especially in low frequency range by volume of chambers. In this study, an active control technique, so called time delay control which is considered to be adequate for a low frequency or nonlinear system, is applied to a single chamber pneumatic isolator. The procedure of applying the tine delay control law to the pneumatic isolator is presented and its effectiveness in enhancement of transmissibility performance is shown based on simulation and experiment. Comparison between passive and active pneumatic isolators is also presented.

Soil-Structure Interaction Analysis for Base-Isolated Nuclear Power Plants Using an Iterative Approach (반복법을 이용한 면진적용 원전구조물의 지반-구조물 상호작용 해석)

  • Han, Seung Ryong;Nam, Min Jun;Seo, Choon Gyo;Lee, Sang Hoon
    • Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
    • /
    • v.19 no.1
    • /
    • pp.21-28
    • /
    • 2015
  • The nuclear accident due to the recent earthquake in Japan has triggered awareness of the importance of safety with regard to nuclear power plants (NPPs). An earthquake is one of the most important parameters which governs the safety of NPPs among external events. Application of a base isolation system for NPPs can reduce the risk for earthquakes. At present, a soil-structure interaction (SSI) analysis is essential in the seismic design of NPPs in consideration of the ground structure interaction. In the seismic analysis of the base-isolated NPP, it is restrictive to consider the nonlinear properties of seismic isolation devices due to the linear analysis of the SSI analysis programs, such as SASSI. Thus, in this study, SSI analyses are performed using an iterative approach considering the material nonlinearity of the isolators. By performing the SSI analysis using an iterative approach, the nonlinear properties of isolators can be considered. The difference between the SSI analysis results without iteration and SSI with iteration using SASSI is noticeable. The results of the SSI analysis using an effective linear (non-iterative) approach underestimate the spectral acceleration because the effective linear model cannot consider the nonlinear properties of isolators. The results of the SSI analysis show that the horizontal response of the base-isolated NPP is significantly reduced.

Extending the OPRCB Seismic isolation system's governing equations of motion to 3D state and its application in multi-story buildings

  • M. Hosseini;S. Azhari;R. Shafie Panah
    • Earthquakes and Structures
    • /
    • v.24 no.3
    • /
    • pp.217-235
    • /
    • 2023
  • Orthogonal pairs of rollers on concave beds (OPRCB) are a low-cost, low-tech rolling-based isolating system, whose high efficiency has been shown in a previous study. However, seismic performance of OPRCB isolators has only been studied in the two-dimensional (2D) state so far. This is while their performance in the three-dimensional (3D) state differs from that of the 2D state, mainly since the vertical accelerations due to rollers' motion in their beds, simultaneously in two orthogonal horizontal directions, are added up and resulting in bigger vertical inertia forces and higher rolling resistance. In this study, first, Lagrange equations were used to derive the governing equations of motion of the OPRCB-isolated buildings in 3D. Then, some regular shear-type OPRCB-isolated buildings were considered subjected to three-component excitations of far- and near-source earthquakes, and their responses were compared to those of their fixed-base counterparts. Finally, the effects of more realistic modeling and analysis were examined by comparing the responses of isolated buildings in 2D and 3D states. Response histories were obtained by the fourth-order Runge-Kutta-Nystrom method, considering the geometrical nonlinearity of isolators. Results reveal that utilizing the OPRCB isolators effectively reduces the acceleration response, however, depending on the system specifications and earthquake characteristics, the maximum responses of isolated buildings in the 3D state can be up to 40% higher than those in the 2D state.