• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.135-144
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• 2017

Near-fault ground motions are characterized by high values of the ratio between the peak of vertical and horizontal ground accelerations, which can significantly affect the nonlinear response of a base-isolated structure. To check the effectiveness of different base-isolation systems for retrofitting a r.c. framed structure located in a near-fault area, a numerical investigation is carried out analyzing the nonlinear dynamic response of the fixed-base and isolated structures. For this purpose, a six-storey r.c. framed building is supposed to be retrofitted by insertion of an isolation system at the base for attaining performance levels imposed by current Italian code in a high-risk seismic zone. In particular, elastomeric (e.g., high-damping-laminated-rubber bearings, HDLRBs) and friction (e.g., steel-PTFE sliding bearings, SBs, or friction pendulum bearings, FPBs) isolators are considered, with reference to three cases of base isolation: HDLRBs acting alone (i.e., EBI structures); in-parallel combination of HDLRBs and SBs (i.e., EFBI structures); FPBs acting alone (i.e., FPBI structures). Different values of the stiffness ratio, defined as the ratio between the vertical and horizontal stiffnesses of the HDLRBs, sliding ratio, defined as the global sliding force divided by the maximum sliding force of the SBs, and in-plan distribution of friction coefficient for the FPs are investigated. The EBI, EFBI and FPBI base-isolation systems are designed assuming the same values of the fundamental vibration period and equivalent viscous damping ratio. The nonlinear dynamic analysis is carried out with reference to near-fault earthquakes, selected and scaled on the design hypotheses adopted for the test structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.267-277
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• 2017

Base-isolation is now being adopted as a retrofitting strategy to improve seismic behaviour of reinforced concrete (r.c.) framed structures subjected to far-fault earthquakes. However, the increase in deformability of a base-isolated framed building may lead to amplification in the structural response under the long-duration horizontal pulses of high-magnitude near-fault earthquakes, which can become critical once the strength level of a fire-weakened r.c. superstructure is reduced. The aim of the present work is to investigate the nonlinear seismic response of fire-damaged r.c. framed structures retrofitted by base-isolation. For this purpose, a five-storey r.c. framed building primarily designed (as fixed-base) in compliance with a former Italian seismic code for a medium-risk zone, is to be retrofitted by the insertion of elastomeric bearings to meet the requirements of the current Italian code in a high-risk seismic zone. The nonlinear seismic response of the original (fixed-base) and retrofitted (base-isolated) test structures in a no fire situation are compared with those in the event of fire in the superstructure, where parametric temperature-time curves are defined at the first level, the first two and the upper levels. A lumped plasticity model describes the inelastic behaviour of the fire-damaged r.c. frame members, while a nonlinear force-displacement law is adopted for the elastomeric bearings. The average root-mean-square deviation of the observed spectrum from the target design spectrum together with a suitable intensity measure are chosen to select and scale near- and far-fault earthquakes on the basis of the design hypotheses adopted.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.543-562
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• 2006

Base isolation technology has been accepted as a feasible and attractive way in improving seismic resistance of structures. The seismic design of new seismically isolated structures is mainly governed by the Uniform Building Code (UBC-97) published by the International Conference of Building Officials. In the UBC code, the distribution formula of the inertial (or lateral) forces leads to an inverted triangular shape in the vertical direction. It has been found to be too conservative for most isolated structures through experimental, computational and real earthquake examinations. In this paper, four simple and reasonable design formulae, based on the first mode of the base-isolated structures, for the lateral force distribution on isolated structures have been validated by a multiple-bay three-story base-isolated steel structure tested on the shaking table. Moreover, to obtain more accurate results for base-isolated structures in which higher mode contributions are more likely expected during earthquakes, another four inertial force distribution formulae are also proposed to include higher mode effects. Besides the experimental verification through shaking table tests, the vertical distributions of peak accelerations computed by the proposed design formulae are in good agreement with the recorded floor accelerations of the USC University Hospital during the Northridge earthquake.

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

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