Seismic behavior of variable frequency pendulum isolator

Abstract

Earthquake performance of a flexible one-story building isolated with a variable frequency pendulum isolator (VFPI) under near-fault and far-field ground motions is investigated. The frictional forces mobilized at the interface of the VFPI are assumed to be velocity dependent. The interaction between frictional forces of the VFPI in two horizontal directions is duly considered and coupled differential equations of motion of the isolated system in the incremental form are solved iteratively. The response of the system with bi-directional interaction is compared with those without interaction. In addition, the effects of velocity dependence on the response of the isolated system are also investigated. Moreover, a parametric study is carried out to critically examine the influence of important parameters on bi-directional interaction effects of the frictional forces of the VFPI. These parameters are: the superstructure time period, frequency variation factor (FVF) and friction coefficient of the VFPI. From the above investigations, it is observed that the dependence of the friction coefficient on relative velocity of the system does not have a noticeable effect on the peak response of the system isolated with VFPI, and that the bi-directional interaction of frictional forces of the VFPI is important and if neglected, isolator displacements will be underestimated and the superstructure acceleration and base shear will be overestimated.