Potential Design of Seismic Vulnerable Buildings Incorporating Lead Rubber Bearing

The seismic hazard of vulnerable regions warrants the investigation of new technologies, such as base level isolation by lead rubber bearing (LRB) devices, that can help to mitigate structural damage on seismic prone buildings. The behavior adopting such technologies can be dynamically observed in simulated environments and thus serves as a valuable metric for their feasibility. LRB base isolators were incorporated into the design of 16 model buildings to better understand how they affected a building's seismic response while also providing information on the structural parameters. A total of 12 different types of bearing systems were tested in base isolated (BI) buildings against conventional fixed-base (FB) isolated buildings. The system of each model high-rise building was represented by the finite element package. Static as well as dynamic analysis were conducted using response spectrum analysis (RSA) based on the seismic excitation to determine the influence of the model type in the aseismic design and the alteration in superstructure behavior. The study reveals that the LRB isolators can potentially diminish respective story accelerations, story inertia, and base shear. Use of LRB isolators in BI buildings resulted in a 10–20% reduction in base shear compared to FB buildings. A notable lateral shift of superstructure is offered by LRB-induced flexibility. The reduction of story acceleration for response spectrum varies 30% on lower stories up to 70% on upper stories. The LRB systems with higher characteristic strength and relatively less isolation periods shows better productivity to minimize displacements in the bearing face for dropping structural shift. However, the LRB with comparatively lower characteristic strength and high isolation periods shows the most efficiency in controlling base shear, offering least story accelerations and consenting lower story inertia forces.

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