Abstract
There is growing demand in industrialized and developing countries to provide people and structures with effective earthquake protection. Here, we employ architectured material concepts and a bio-inspired approach to trail-blaze a new path to seismic isolation. We develop a novel seismic isolator whose unit cell is formed by linkages that replicate the bones of human limbs. Deformable tendons connect the limb members to a central post carrying the vertical load, which can slide against the bottom plate of the system. While the displacement capacity of the device depends only on the geometry of the limbs, its vibration period is tuned by dynamically stretching the tendons in the nonlinear stress–strain regime, so as to avoid resonance with seismic excitations. This biomimetic, sliding–stretching isolator can be scaled to seismically protect infrastructure, buildings, artworks and equipment with customized properties and sustainable materials. It does not require heavy industry or expensive materials and is easily assembled from metallic parts and 3D-printed components.
Highlights
In the event of earthquakes, seismic isolation offers an effective strategy to ensure the safety of people and the prevention of damage to structures, machinery and equipment [1,2,3,4,5,6]
We conclude that the biomimetic isolators analyzed in this study help us to forge a novel path to seismic isolation
Such devices with an anthropomorphic character are classified as highly tunable seismic isolators that can be manufactured with customized properties using optimal geometries and sustainable materials available around the world
Summary
In the event of earthquakes, seismic isolation offers an effective strategy to ensure the safety of people and the prevention of damage to structures, machinery and equipment [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The most widespread seismic isolators currently on the market use elastomeric or friction-pendulum bearings [7,8]. These devices partially or completely disconnect the portion of the ‘superstructure’ above them from the ground motion. Seismic isolators offer different levels of damping [10], which is useful for dissipating energy and reducing the amplitude of lateral displacements during earthquakes. The inherent limitations of currently available isolators include their confined operational frequencies, manufacturing complexity, need for advanced technical expertise and substantial costs
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