Predicting the behavior of commercially available building foundation isolation materials using a four-parameter fractional Zener model

Abstract

In this paper we apply a four-parameter fractional Zener model to describe the short and long term creep behavior of a viscoelastic building foundation isolating material currently in use globally in noise and vibration mitigation applications. Building from the classical rheological models composed of springs and dashpots suitably combined (Maxwell, Kelvin-Voight, Zener), we include a fractional derivative component in the form of a Scott-Blair element composed of a Riemann-Liouville derivative of non-integer order. The parameters are identified empirically through measured stress-strain results and hysteresis curves for the material in compression. The model is then compared to the results of a 168h constant load creep test of three commercially available materials.