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Experimental and computational verification of reasonable design formulae for base‐isolated structures
Author(s) -
Tsai C. S.,
Chen BoJen,
Chiang TsuCheng
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
earthquake engineering and structural dynamics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.218
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1096-9845
pISSN - 0098-8847
DOI - 10.1002/eqe.279
Subject(s) - structural engineering , superstructure , earthquake shaking table , simple (philosophy) , displacement (psychology) , code (set theory) , base (topology) , base isolation , engineering , isolation (microbiology) , seismic analysis , inertial frame of reference , computer science , mathematics , mechanical engineering , physics , mathematical analysis , classical mechanics , frame (networking) , psychology , philosophy , microbiology and biotechnology , epistemology , set (abstract data type) , psychotherapist , biology , programming language
It is clear that base isolation is a sensible strategic design in attenuating the responses of a structural system induced by ground motions. The design of seismically isolated structures is mainly governed by the Uniform Building Code (UBC) published by the International Conference of Building Officials. The UBC code emphasizes a simple, statically equivalent design method that displacements of an isolated structure are concentrated at the isolation level. Therefore, the superstructure nearly moves as a rigid body and the design forces of elements above isolators are based on the behaviour of isolators at the design displacement. However, in the UBC code, the distribution of inertial (or lateral) forces over the height of the superstructure above isolation has been found to be too conservative for most isolated structures. In view of this, two simple and reasonable design formulae for the lateral force distribution on isolated structures have been proposed in this paper. Results obtained from a full‐scale isolated structure tested on the shaking table and numerical analyses of two additional examples verify the suitability of design formulae. It is illustrated that the proposed formulae can predict well the lateral force distribution on isolated structures during earthquakes. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.