The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Experimental testing of the resilient-friction base isolation system

Clark, Peter W.; Kelly, James M.

UCB/EERC-90/10, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1990-07, 148 pages (525/C52/1990)

This report describes a series of earthquake simulator tests of a five-story steel frame founded on resilient-friction base-isolation (R-FBI) bearings. These bearings use alternating plates of Teflon and stainless steel encircling a hard rubber core to absorb damaging horizontal ground motions. System identification tests were performed on the test structure to characterize its fixed-base and isolation response; then the frame was subjected to simulated ground motions from a variety of earthquakes. Considered in the results were how well the isolation system performed in limiting the accelerations transmitted to the frame and in reducing the amplification of accelerations toward the top of the frame, typical in conventional fixed-base structures, interstory drifts, the sliding displacements in the bearings; and the frequency response of the test frame. Comparisons were made with results from previous earthquake simulator tests of the same steel test frame founded on various rubber bearing isolation systems.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-90-10.pdf (11 MB)