• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.129-144
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• 2020

In this study, the idea of damping force linearly proportional to horizontal isolation displacement is implemented into sloped rolling-type bearings in order to meet different seismic performance goals. In addition to experimentally demonstrating its practical feasibility, the previously developed analytical model is further modified to be capable of accurately predicting its hysteretic behavior. The numerical predictions by using the modified analytical model present a good match of the shaking table test results. Afterward, several sloped rolling-type bearings designed with linearly variable damping force are numerically compared with a bearing designed with conventional constant damping force. The initial friction damping force adopted in the former is designed to be smaller than the constant one adopted in the latter. The numerical comparison results indicate that when the horizontal isolation displacement does not exceed the designed turning point (or practically when subjected to minor or frequent earthquakes that seldom have a great displacement demand for seismic isolation), the linearly variable damping force design can exhibit a better acceleration control performance than the constant damping force design. In addition, the former, in general, advantages the re-centering performance over the latter. However, the maximum horizontal displacement response of the linearly variable damping force design, in general, is larger than that of the constant damping force design. It is particularly true when undergoing a horizontal isolation displacement response smaller than the designed turning point and designing a smaller value of initial friction damping force.