Base isolation of buildings for subway‐induced environmental vibration: Field experiments and a semi‐analytical prediction model

Abstract

SummaryThis paper presents a new three‐directional isolator and a new prediction model for base isolation method of buildings to improve the comfort of occupants under subway‐induced environmental vibration. The mechanical properties of the isolator were tested in a laboratory. The results indicated that the stiffness values can satisfy the isolation requirements for environmental vibrations by increasing the thickness of rubber layers, and the sliding bottom is beneficial for protecting the new isolator from instability failures under earthquakes. The suppression effectiveness of the new isolator for three‐directional subway‐induced environmental vibrations was then investigated via field experiments with a full‐scale building. Further, the tri‐axial comfort of occupants inside the building is enhanced significantly. Finally, using the measured data from the field experiments as an input, the new prediction model was proven to be effective for evaluating the vertical vibration levels of the base‐isolated building. As the new prediction model only includes a few of the most influential floor slabs, the modeling workload and computational cost of the prediction analysis are eased. Therefore, the new isolator and the prediction model are beneficial for improving the service performances of the base isolation method, especially for the buildings near subway transportation and in seismic areas.