The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Feasibility and performance studies on improving the earthquake resistance of new and existing buildings using the friction pendulum system

Zayas, Victor A.; Low, Stanley S.; Bozzo, Luis M.; Mahin, Stephen A.

UCB/EERC-89/09, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1989-09-01, 302 pages (530/Z32/1989)

The feasibility of using an innovative earthquake-resistant construction technique to improve the earthquake resistance of buildings was investigated. The technique, called the friction pendulum system (FPS), uses steel connections to seismically isolate the buildings using small amplitude pendulum motions. Analytic and experimental studies were carried out on buildings designed to have approximately equivalent construction costs as conventional building designs. The earthquake response of the FPS-supported buildings were compared to those of conventional code design.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-89-09.pdf (20 MB)