Study of a Phenomenological Model For Elastomeric Bearings

Abstract eng:
Elastomeric bearings are one of the most commonly used seismic isolators, whose considerably grown number of applications in recent years witnesses the confidence in seismic isolation. On the other hand, full-scale experimentation of isolators, so far conducted in a limited number of international facilities, focused the attention to unexpected collapses, highlighting how the assessment of the seismic behavior of base-isolated structures strongly depends on the accuracy of the isolators modeling. With some exception, models present in literature are generally intended to represent the overall isolator behavior, without information on the state of internal layers, where some rubber layer may show high deformations that can unevenly damage the layer itself and influence the global stress distribution. The main objective of the present work is to develop a phenomenological model able to represent the force-deformation state of each layer of the device. The proposed model includes geometric nonlinearities in the formulation and material nonlinearities in the constitutive laws, defined by a number of parameters which are calibrated coupling a system identification approach and a sensitivity analysis in the interpretation of the experimental test results on full-scale bearings carried out at the EUCENTRE TREES Lab of Pavia (Italy). The model is found suitable to represent the experimental response.

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