BUILDING WITH BASE ISOLATION TECHNIQUES

Two buildings were analyzed using the nonlinear time history response analysis using the dynamic
MODAL analysis for fixed base (FB) building, and Isolated base (IB) building with rubber bearing. The
analysis represents a case study for symmetric steel building to show the ultimate capacity of the
selected structural bearing, and to make a comparison for the difference between the isolated base
and the fixed base buildings. Initial results show that the presence of the structural rubber bearing
reduces significantly the vertical displacement, moment and shear generated for the same mode.

Base isolation (BI) is a mechanism that provides earthquake resistance to the new structure. The BI
system decouple the building from the horizontal ground motion induced by earthquake, and offer a very
stiff vertical components to the base level of the superstructure in connection to substructure (foundation).
exception of permit to pushover, and International Building Code IBC2000. The structural bearing criteria
include vertical and horizontal loads, lateral motion, and lateral rotation that transferred from the
superstructure into the bearing and from the bearing to substructure.

For earthquake resistant construction using base isolation [Raufaste, 1992] it was found that more
attention should be paid to four points: 1. preparation of guidelines for evaluation and approval of base
isolation structures; 2. preparation of guidelines related to the performance of base isolation devices; 3.
facilities to encourage exchange, collection and dissemination of technical information on the response-
control structure; and 4. study of methods of evaluation of performance of response-control structures.

The base isolation extends the fundamental lateral period resulting in reducing the base shear forces,
enhancing the total building drift to the total height and the inter-story drift if compared with the
conventional foundations

The fixed base for the steel columns relies on the steel plate and anchored bolts connection, where the
reduce of the fundamental lateral period resulted into increase of the base shear forces, increase of the
total building drift to the total height and the inter-story drift if compared with the base-isolated
foundations.
 Fundamentals of Seismic Base Isolation

Over the past decades, earthquake resistant design of building structures has been largely
based on a ductility design concept worldwide. The performances of the intended ductile

structures during major earthquakes. however, have proved to be unsatisfactory and indeed far
below expectation. Among the structural control schemes developed, seismic base isolation is

one of the most promising alternatives. It can be adopted for new structures as well as the retrofit
of
existing buildings and bridges.

During earthquakes, the conventional structure without seismic isolation is subjected to

substantial storydrifts, which may lead to damage or even collapse of the building. Whereas the
isolated structure vibrates almost like a rigid body with large deformations or displacements
endured by the isolation bearings. The lateral forces of the isolated building are not only reduced
in magnitude but also fairly redistributed over the floors, which further mitigates the overturning
moment of the structure.

The friction pendulum bearings are stainless steel seismic isolators consisting of a
concave surface, an articulated slider, and a cover plate. During an earthquake, the articulated
slider within the bearing slide along the concave surface, causing the supported structure to move
with gentle pendulum motions.

structure are minimized since the center of stiffness of the bearings coincides with the center

of mass of the supported structure. The movement of the slider generates a dynamic friction
force that provides the required damping for absorbing the energy of the earthquake.

Design of the seismic isolation system includes determination of the base shear, bearing
displacement, etc., in accordance with the site-specific conditions by code provisions, at
desired bearing properties. In this section, a simple design procedure based on static
analysis is introduced for the preliminary design of isolation systems. Stability verification of the
prototype bearings prior to implementation is based on this factored displacement demand.
Although the above discussions emphasize on the friction pendulum systems, the design
procedure described in this section is in fact common for structures isolated with any type of
seismic isolators, regardless of FPS, LRB or HDRB.

The advantages of the friction pendulum bearings- its novel technical approach, supported test
results and other analysis, are found to be more effectively enhance the buildings survivability in
the event of an earthquake. The San Francisco Airport International Terminal is the largest new
building in the worldconstructed using seismic isolation.

Seismic isolation provides the lowest construction cost for achieving the desired seismic
performance. Moreover, the use of friction pendulum bearings, as compared to rubber bearings,
allowed for a further reduction in column and beam sizes and saved an additional 680 ton of
structural steel.

The Benicia-Martinez bridge is one of the largest bridges to date to undertake a seismic
isolation retrofit, and uses the largest seismic isolation bearings ever manufactured. The
friction pendulum bearings for this project have a 5 second period, a lateral displacement
capacity of 53 inches, a 5 million lg