Seismic behavior of base isolated precast frame

Abstract

The performance of the base-isolated precast frame is examined for both near-field and far-field earthquakes. For comparison, the corresponding base isolated monolithic frame is analyzed. The frames are isolated using a friction pendulum system (FPS), which is appropriately designed to take up the vertical load coming on the frames. The same isolators are provided for the monolithic and precast frames. Two types of precast frames are considered, namely frames with emulated and non-emulated connections. An ensemble of 7 different earthquakes is used for each type of earthquake to obtain the average responses, which include maximum base shear, maximum acceleration, maximum top story displacement, and maximum inter-story drift ratio (MIDR). SAP2000 is used for the non-linear time history analysis of the frames for different earthquakes. The studies are made for three levels of PGA, namely 0.4 g, 0.6 g, and 0.8 g. The study shows that a significant reduction in base shear, top story displacement and MIDR is achieved by base isolating the precast frames. However, the corresponding base isolated monolithic frame offers more reductions in response especially for MIDR. Of the two types of precast frames, the one with emulated connection shows marginally higher reductions of response as compared to the non-emulated connection. Further, the percentage reductions in responses in main shock and after shock remain almost the same for all cases.