Co-authored by BE Collective’s John Tuxworth, this paper was presented and published as part of the Concrete Institute’s 2009 Conference.
Synopsis: Increased resistance to earthquake forces is not always a desirable solution for buildings which house contents that are irreplaceable or simply more valuable than the actual primary structure (eg museums, data storage centres, etc). Base isolation can be employed to minimize inter-story drifts and floor accelerations via specially designed interfaces at the structural base, or at higher levels of the superstructure.
This paper presents the design comparison of two isolation systems (lead-rubber bearings, and friction pendulum bearings) for a five-story reinforced concrete framed building. The response of the base-case, fixed-structure, and isolated systems is compared for dynamic analysis to actual historical records for five significant seismic events.
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