13th World Conference on Seismic Isolation,

Energy Dissipation and Active Vibration Control of Structures

- commemorating JSSI 20th Anniversary September 24-27 2013 Sendai Japan

Paper No. # 880359

Design Comparison of the Seismically Isolated Building by the Chinese Code

and Japanese Code
Part1. Chinese Structural Design and Behaviour to the Strong
Ground Motions
Gao Xiaoming, China Institute of Building Standard Design and Research, Build.2, No.9, Shoutinan Rd.,
Haidian, Beijing, P.R.China, Gaoxm2009@126.com
Zeng Demin, China Institute of Building Standard Design and Research, zengdemin@vip.163.com
Deng Xuan, China Institute of Building Standard Design and Research, xuan.deng@qq.com
Du Zhichao, China Institute of Building Standard Design and Research, dzc_2006@126.com
Matsutaro Seki, Building Research Institute, Japan, Former JICA Long Term Expert in China
sekimatsutaro@yahoo.co.jp

ABSTRACT
The 20 meters high seismically isolated structure located in seismic precautionary intensity of 8
degree area, which is designed in accordance with China's specification, uses Chinese code response
spectrum to do elastic design for frequently occurred earthquake case, and the designed results meet the
requirements of the seismic three-stage design of Chinese specification. Considering the wind resistance
capability and tensile capacity of rubber isolator, the layout of 28 laminated rubber bearing isolators; 14 of
which are lead rubber bearings and 14 ordinary natural rubber bearings are determined. According to the
demand of Chinese seismic code, two natural seismic waves and one synthesized artificial earthquake wave
(adjusted peak acceleration 200gal) with Chinese seismic response spectrum are used. After doing the elastic
time history analysis for above three seismic waves, the horizontal seismic reduced factor = 0.30, which is
the ratio of the shear force of isolation structure to that of the original structure could be obtained and it
means that Chinese design intensity for isolation structure could be reduced by one degree of design category
for the original structure. The upper structure of isolation structure using the above obtained was
redesigned by the elastic same analysis for the frequently occurring earthquake level. Finally for the strong
earthquake level; 400 gal, the nonlinear response analysis was performed both for the original structure
without seismic isolation and for the seismic isolation structure. In case of seismic structure the maximum
story drift angle could be confirmed to be smaller than the seismic code limit of 1/50 to meet Chinese
specifications requirements.
Keywords: Isolation Code, horizontal seismic reduced factor, Elasto-plastic analysis

1 INTRODUCTION
China is an earthquake-prone country with great loss of earthquake disasters. In recent years,
in China three big earthquakes which magnitude exceeded 7.0; 2008.5.12 Sichuan Wenchuan M8.0
earthquake, 2011.4.14 Qinghai Yushu M7.1 earthquake and 2013.4.20 Sichuan Lushan M7.0
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earthquake occurred. Structure seismic isolation is the most effective methods to against earthquake,
which was gradually approved by Chinese society. After 30 years development, seismic isolation
technology had a lot of engineering applications in China, especially after 2008 Sichuan Wenchuan
earthquake, there was big growth in number of seismic isolation technology applications. In 2013
Sichuan Lushan earthquake, an outpatient hospital building constructed by the seismic isolation
technology experienced the earthquake shock but the building's structural and non-structural
components had no damage. From this lesson, it was strongly recognized that the seismic isolation
technology is very useful anti-seismic technology in China.
2 CHINESE SEISMIC ISOLATION DESIGN BACKGROUND
2.1 Chinese Seismic isolation Design Code
Now China has seven technology codes for seismic isolation structure (Table 1). Seismic
isolation structure design mainly is provided in the national standard <Code for seismic design of
buildings>(GB50011-2011), and in this code the chapter 12's provisions give the demands for
seismic isolation design, but still now, China has not yet formulated specifically for seismic
isolation design specifications.
Table 1 - Chinese Seismic isolation Structure Design Codes
Code Name
<Code for seismic design of buildings> GB50011-2010 Chapter 12:
seismically Isolated and Energy-Dissipated Buildings
Technical specification for seismic isolation with laminated rubber
bearing isolators CECS 126:2001
General rule for performance-based seismic design of buildings
CECS160:2004
Rubber bearing-Part1:Seismic-Protection isolators test methods GB/T
20688.1-2007
Rubber bearing-Part3: Elastomeric Seismic-Protection isolators for
building GB/T 20688.3-2006
Rubber isolation bearings for building JG 118-2000
Building isolation structural detail drawing 03SG610-1

Code Level
National Code
Association Criterion
Association Criterion
National Standard
National Standard
Industry Standard
National Standard

2.2 China Seismic Isolation Design Process

China seismic isolation design mainly uses horizontal seismic-reduced factor in order to
measure isolation effect. For getting the factor , we should make the target both the non-isolated
structure and the isolated structure and compare the horizontal shear force and/or the overturning
moment between the two structures. After get the factor , the upper structure will be redesigned
using the reduced horizontal shear force based on the factor .
The code gives equivalent lateral force method to get the factor for short-period and/or the
high stiffness structures. Equivalent lateral force method is based on a single degree of freedom
model combining response spectrum method, that is, currently China seismic isolation structure
design mostly uses time-history analysis method to calculate the factor . Specific seismic isolation
design process is shown in Figure 1.
Code for seismic design of building; (GB50011-2010) 5.1.2 and explanation of provision
give the requirement of strong earthquake records to do the dynamic analysis. The code demand
that the ground motions records average seismic influence coefficient curve should be in
conformity with the seismic influence coefficient curve of the standard response spectrum. The
response spectrum values of strong earthquake records at the main period spectrum should not
differ by more than 20% with standard response spectrum. For seismic isolation design, the code
did not specifically indicate that the period should be selected as a non-isolated structure or isolated
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structure. In the view point of the elasto-plastic analysis considering the characteristics of isolation
structure, in this paper the strong earthquakes were selected in order to get the conformity with the
isolated structure period.

Figure 1- Dynamic Analysis Process for Seismic isolation Structure

3 SEISMIC ISOLATION DESIGN PROJECT
3.1 Project Overview
The isolated structure is a 5 story frame, the function is school teaching space, all each story
height is 4.0m, total height of structure is 20.0m, plan size is 32.2m19.2m and total area is 2995
m2. The first story planar graph is shown in Figure 2. Total weight of structure is about 5180 KN.
The Structural height-width ratio is 1.04, column section uses 650mm650mm650mm
700mm and 650mm700mm, main beam section uses 300mm700 mm, 300mm650mm and
300mm600mm, the main beam span is 8400mm, 6000mm, 3600mm and 2400mmSecondary
beam section is 200mm400mm.
The seismic precautionary intensity for this structure is 8.0 degree (0.2g), the design
earthquake group is 1, site class is and site characteristic period value is 0.35s.

Figure 2 - First Story Structural Plan

(KZ1 Section is 600mmx650mmKZ2 Section is 600mmx600mm)

3.2 The Layout of Isolators

The isolation story is composed of laminated rubber bearing (LNR) and laminated lead rubber
bearing (LRB). These diameters are 500mm, 600mm and 700mm, respectively. Rubber bearing
parameters are shown in Table 2. The maximum vertical stress of isolator with gravity load is 7.6
Mpa which meets the code's demand and the maximum vertical tensile stress in rare big earthquake
condition is 0.4Mpa which is less than 1.0Mpa of code demands. The isolators layout is shown in
Figure 3.
Table 2 Rubber Bearing Parameter
Type

G4.0

LRB600

LRB700

LNR500

LNR600

LNR700

Rubber shear modulus

Vertical stiffness
Equivalent
horizontal
stiffness Keq100

Mpa
KN/mm
KN/m

0.392
2445
1681

0.392
3259
1961

0.392
1525
705

0.392
2097
909

0.392
2861
1060

Equivalent damping ratio

Keq100

26.5

26.5

<5

<5

<5

11612.5
929
90.2
233.0
120
600
620
4

19562.5
1084
122.7
265
140
700
720
10

164.0
30
500
520
4
254891
24589
2235.8

233.0
30
600
620
4

265.0
50
700
720
6

initial shear stiffnessK1

KN/m
Final shear stiffness K2
KN/m
yield force Qd
KN
Height
mm
Product Height
mm
Effective diameter
mm
Outer diameter
mm
Amount
Isolation Story KI
Isolation Story K2
Isolation Story Qy

Figure 3 - Layout of Isolators

3.3 Seismic isolation Dynamic Analysis
For the software Etabs to do dimensional nonlinear finite analysis for the isolated-structure
and non-isolated structure, the restoring characteristics for the laminated natural rubber bearing is
the linear model and for the laminated lead rubber bearing is the bilinear model. Dynamic analysis
applied time history analysis method. According to the code, this project selected 2 sets of strong
earthquake records and 1set of artificial acceleration time history curve. Each set composes of two
components of X and Y. The comparison between time history response spectrum and standard
response spectrum are shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 - Comparison between Time History Response Spectrum and

Standard Response Spectrum
The three set of seismic waves are shown in Figure 5. According to the nonlinear response
analysis, the maximum reduction ratio of non-isolation to isolation structures shear force was
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calculated. Table 3 shows the results of response analysis. From this table, we can get the big
damping effect and the maximum ratio becomes 0.25. From macroscopic view, we can confirm that
the upper structure's design shear force could be reduced as 1 degree of seismic intensity in China.

Chi-Chi Wave X

Chi-Chi Wave Y

Livermore Wave X

Livermore Wave Y

Artificial Wave X

Artificial Wave Y

Figure 5 X and Y Direction Accelerations Compare between the Isolated

and the Non-Isolated Structure at the Top Story

Table 3 - Shear force Ratio between Non-Isolation and Isolation Structure

Wave
Layer NO
5

Chi-Chi Wave
X
Y
direction direction
0.13
0.12

Livermore Wave
X
Y
direction direction
0.11
0.10

Artificial Wave
X
Y
direction direction
0.15
0.14

0.14

0.14

0.13

0.11

0.18

0.17

0.16

0.17

0.15

0.14

0.20

0.20

0.19

0.22

0.17

0.17

0.21

0.22

0.22

0.25

0.20

0.20

0.25

0.23

Max ratio

0.25

3.4 Rare Big Earthquake Elasto-Plastic Analysis

After getting the horizontal seismic-reduced factor reduced the seismic influence coefficient,
the new structural design of the upper structure was performed again. The structural design should
meet the minimum shear weight ratio and axial compression ratio requirement. The new column
section is 600mm650mm600mm600mm, respectively and the main new beam section is
300mm650mm300600mm300500mm, respectively. The strength of concrete and the
thickness of floor kept the same as the original structure. The elasto-plastic analysis to rare big
earthquake was carried out by the software Perform-3D. The constitutive relationship of steel and
concrete are shown in Figure 6.

(a) HRB400 (Steel)

(b) C30 (Concrete)

Figure 6 - Constitutive Relation of Material

As for the restoring force characteristics of the isolation story, yielding shear coefficient is
0.04, initial elastic period is 0.9 sec. and isolators period which is after yielding is 2.76 sec.
Dynamic analysis was done in the weak direction using seismic ground waves. The story drift
of elasto-plastic analysis between isolated and non-isolated structure are seen in Figure 7.

Figure 7 - The Story Drift between Non-Isolated and Isolated Structure

According to Figure 7 we can see the story drift of isolated structure was approximate to
1/278. It was much smaller than 1/50 which is the limit of plastic story drift in China standard. The
whole structure almost was in elastic state. However for the traditional seismic structure, the story
drifts are bigger and the biggest story drift was 1/79. Although it met the standard requirement, its
seismic performance was lower than isolated structure. In case of isolated structure, the maximum
horizontal displacement of isolation story was 16.8 cm.
The main failure characteristics of structural members were the crash of concrete in
compression zone and the snap of reinforced in tension zone. The maximum tensile strain and
maximum compressive strain are shown in Table 4. From Table 4, the structure is in elastic state,
namely concrete and reinforced were under the yield strain.
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Table 4 - Max Tension Strain of Isolated Structure

Element

Chi-Chi Wave

Livermore Wave

Artificial Wave

Yielding strain

Max fiber tension strain (Steel)

Beam

0.0012

0.0011

0.0016

Column

0.0010

0.0013

0.0018

0.002

Max fiber compression strain (Concrete)

Beam

0.000709

0.000568

0.001088

Column

0.00060

0.000635

0.000835

0.002

From Figure 8, we can see the rubber bearings consumed the most of seismic energy and the
main structural components consumed less than 50% of seismic energy which caused by the elastic
deformation.

(a)Chi-Chi Wave

(b) Livermore Wave

(c) Artificial Wave

Figure 8 - Energy Dissipation of Isolated Structure

4 CONCLUSION
There were no design standard for seismic-isolated structure at present in China and Code for
seismic design of buildings did not have detailed requirement for isolated structure, so it was
difficult for designer to design the isolation structure. As a result it was also difficult to popularize
isolation technology in China. As at the same time the different standards had different requirement
for the structural design, we should universalize standards as soon as possible.
According to the result of software Etabs, with rubber bearings, horizontal seismic force
decreased obviously, the base shear decreased to 25% in two direction .As a result the upper
structure's fortification could reduce 1 degree of seismic intensity in China Standard.
From the result of elasto-plastic analysis due to the big ground motions it was obvious that
isolated structure was almost in elastic condition.
ACKNOWLEGEMENT
Human Resource Development Project for Aseismic Building in China founded by Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Chinese Government has been performed from July,
2009 to May, 2013. This paper is one of the activities of this project. As for the seismic isolation
theme carried out in the workshop, we are deeply grateful to the great contribution of the Japanese
short time experts and collaborators; Prof. MineoTAKAYAMA, Fukuoka Univ., Mr Toshikazu
YOSHIZAWA, Mr Yu SAKURAI Bridgestone Co., Dr Demin FENG, Fujita Corporation, Mr
Yasunori HASHIMOTO, Obayashi Corporation as well as JICA staffs in Tokyo head office and
China office.
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