Influence of Isolator Properties and Earthquake Characteristics on the Seismic Behavior of RC Structure Equipped with Quintuple Friction Pendulum Bearings

Abstract

Indeed, base isolation systems have gained significant attention from researchers and designers over the last few decades. Within this context, various technologies were developed to improve the performance of structures under strong earthquake shaking intensities. Recently, a new generation of multi-stage friction pendulum (FP) bearings known as “Quintuple Friction Pendulum” (QFP) was introduced to the literature to attain high energy dissipation capability. The main advantages of this bearing come from its ability to achieve complex multi-stage adaptive behavior with smoothed loading and unloading when subjected to lateral forces owing to its five effective pendula and nine operation regimes. On the other hand, investigations that studied the influence of the bearing properties and the impact of various ground motion characteristics on the performance and behavior of this isolation system are scarce. Thus, this research aims to conduct a parametric assessment that highlights and quantifies the effect of the various isolator properties and earthquake characteristics on the behavior of the base-isolated structure. As a part of the study, finite element models considering the nonlinearity of the isolation system and the superstructure will be developed in OpenSees. Generally, the study results have shown that the behavior of the isolator is significantly influenced by its properties and the type of earthquake being applied.