The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Experimental and analytical studies of the friction pendulum system for the seismic protection of simple bridges

Mosqueda, Gilberto; Whittaker, Andrew S.; Fenves, Gregory L.; Mahin, Stephen A.

UCB/EERC-2004/01, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 2004, 110 pages (400/E177/2004-01)

Tests were conducted to study the behavior of sliding bearings with multiple components of excitation. A 7 ft. by 10 ft. rigid frame model isolated with friction pendulum bearings, representing a scale model of an isolated bridge, was subjected to displacement-controlled orbits and earthquake simulations. The displacement test data were used to characterize the bearings to bidirectional orbits and calibrate mathematical models suitable for representing friction pendulum bearings. The earthquake test data were compared with analytical simulations to evaluate the efficacy of the calibrated models.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-04-01.pdf (8 MB)