Simulating the use of rubber shock absorbers for mitigating poundings of seismically isolated buildings during strong earthquakes

Abstract eng:
This paper focuses on the simulation of the use of rubber shock absorbers that can be used as an impact mitigation measure for potential earthquake induced poundings of seismically isolated buildings. In particular, layers of soft material can be incorporated at locations where it is likely to have impacts during a very strong earthquake, in order to avoid the sudden application of large impact forces and to absorb some of the impact energy. For the simulation of the dynamic behavior of such rubber bumpers during impacts, a non-linearexponential force-based impact model has been developed, based on the kinetic energy loss due to impact. The accuracy of the proposed impact model is assessed by comparing the loaddisplacement curves from the numerical simulations with those obtained from relevant experiments that were conducted by other researchers. Finally, some representative results from simulations of seismically isolated buildings pounding against adjacent structures during earthquake excitations are presented, in order to show the effectiveness of using rubber bumpers as impact mitigation measure.

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