Performance of a high damping rubber bearing base isolation system for a shear beam structure

Abstract

Performance of High Damping Laminated Rubber Bearing (HD-LRB) base isolation system in protecting the structure and the structural content is studied. A non-uniform shear beam structural model is considered, and the generalized non-stationary Kanai–Tajimi model for the El Centro 1940 earthquake is used as excitation. The technique of equivalent linearization is utilized and the mean-square response statistics of secondary systems and primary structure are evaluated. Statistically estimated peak responses of the secondary system and the primary structure are evaluated and the results are compared with the response spectra for the actual earthquake accelerogram. Comparison of the stochastic responses for base-isolated structures with the HD-LRB and the linear Laminated Rubber Bearing (LRB) and the fixed-base structure is also carried out. It is shown that the HD-LRB system significantly reduces the mean-square, as well as the peak acceleration and deflection responses without generating large base displacements. Furthermore, the non-linear behaviour of the HD-LRB somewhat improves the performance of the bearing in reducing the peak responses of the secondary system and the primary structure when compared with the linear LRB model.