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Figure 1. Three important base isolation systems. a, Lead rubber bearing; b, Friction pendulum system; c, TASS system.
Design parameters for seismic isolation bearing – DD: the design displacement, being the displacement at
centre of rigidity of isolation system at design basis
As per IBC 2000 (ref. 5), a minimum level for design dis- earthquake (DBE);
placements and forces is to be obtained from static analy- – DM: the design displacement, being the displacement at
sis for all seismic isolation designs. The static analysis is also centre of rigidity of isolation system at maximum credi-
useful both for preliminary design of isolation system and ble earthquake (MCE);
– DTD: the total design displacement, being the displace- and y is the distance to a corner perpendicular to the dire-
ment of a bearing at a corner of the building and in- ction of seismic loading.
cludes the component of the torsional displacement in
the direction of DD;
Design forces
– DTM: same as DTD but calculated for MCE.
The superstructure and elements below the isolation inter-
DD and DM are given as:
face are designed for forces based on DBE design displace-
( g / 4π 2 )S D1TD ment, DD. The isolation system, the foundation and structural
DD = , (7)
βD elements below the isolation system must be designated
to withstand the following minimum lateral seismic force:
( g / 4π 2 )S M1TM
DM = , (8) Vb = KD,maxDD. (13)
βM
where g is the acceleration due to gravity, SD1 and SM1 are If other displacements rather than DD generate larger forces,
spectral coefficients, TD and TM are isolated periods, and then those forces should be used in design rather than the
βD and βM are damping coefficients corresponding to the force obtained from eq. (13).
DBE and MCE level responses, respectively. The structure above the isolation plane should withstand
a minimum shear force, Vs, as if it is fixed base where:
Effective isolated system periods K D,max DD
Vs = . (14)
RI
The effective isolated periods TD and TM corresponding to
the DBE and MCE level response are: In IBC 2000, RI is defined as
Base isolation on soft soil motion normal to the fault trace is richer in long-period
spectral components than that parallel to the fault. The fault
Although the concept of base isolation is gaining wide- normal and fault parallel motions are more or less uncor-
spread acceptance in different parts of the world, a ques- related, and the fault parallel motion often exhibits higher
tion is being raised over performance of base isolated spectral acceleration components at short periods than the
building located at soft soil sites as to the effect of a low- fault normal motion. The resultant maximum bearing dis-
site natural frequency on isolated structures. To address placement is mainly due to the normal component of the
these concerns, Kelly7 carried out an experimental study near-fault motions. The contribution from the parallel compo-
on shake table at EERC, University of California at Berkeley. nent in the resultant displacement may be ignored.
Two different isolation systems were used in the shake table The second aspect of near-fault ground motion that stron-
tests. One isolation system was designed to provide the model gly impacts seismic isolation systems is the presence of long-
with a natural period that corresponds to the period of a duration pulses. The ground motions may have one or more
proposed nuclear facility. The second system made use of displacement pulses, with peak velocities of the order of 0.5 m/s
newly developed high damping rubber with low shear modu- and durations in the range of 1–3 s. These pulses will have
lus which provides a frequency of about 25% lower than a large impact on an isolation system with a period in this
that given by the first system. This allowed the assessment range and can lead to a large isolator displacement. The large
of (i) the benefits of lengthening the period of isolation displacements can be accommodated by using large isola-
system where the site is particularly soft and (ii) the prac- tors. Figure 5 illustrates how a system of transfer trusses in
ticality of long-period isolation systems based on elasto- the lower portion of a frame is used to bring load from 24
meric components. The test series has shown that the base columns into only 8 nos. of bearings. This concept has
isolation systems can be used at soft-soil sites under circum- been used in large buildings in Japan to take care of large
stances where load on the isolation system and, conse- displacement demand on the isolation system.
quently, sizes of the isolation systems are sufficiently large to A comparative study on performance of various isolation
accommodate the resulting large displacement. systems in near-fault locations has been carried out by Jangid
and Kelly8. It is observed that EDF-type isolation systems
may be optimum choice for design of isolated structures
Base isolation for near-fault motions in near-fault locations.
In the recent past, a number of accelerograms from near-
source sites have been recorded. Seismic response of base- Base isolated buildings with SSI
isolated structures subjected to such accelerograms raised
the issue of suitability of isolation system in near-fault lo- The influence of soil–structure interaction (SSI) and pos-
cations. There are two aspects of near-fault ground motion sible effects of building and foundation rocking are exam-
that influences base isolated structures8. First, the ground ined by investigating the modal properties of the isolated