The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Verification Testing of Prototype Bearings for a Base Isolated Building

Kelly, James M.; Çelebi, Mehmet

UCB/SESM-1984/01, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1984-03, 42 pages (500/C23/84/01)

The report describes a series of tests carried out to verify the performance of prototype natural rubber bearings designed for the first building in the United States built on the principles of base isolation. The cylindrical base isolation bearings consist of layers of natural rubber and thin steel plates. The tests demonstrated that the bearings were able to sustain large lateral cyclic displacements without distress. Effective vertical and lateral stiffnesses of bearings were determined. Equivalent viscous damping ratios were calculated from hysteretic plots.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/SEMM/SEMM-84-01.pdf (3 MB)