Fundamental Study of Earthquake Isolation Systems Suitable for Buildings of Industrial Facilities : 1st Report, Performance of Earthquake Isolation Systems Using Hysteretic Dampers

Abstract

For industrial facilities, such as computer centres, semiconductor manufacturing factories and fast breeder reactor power stations, earthquake isolation systems used for buildings should not only attenuate the seismic response of the buildings but also reduce the response of the internal equipment. From this point of view, isolation systems using various types of damper have been evaluated through both experimental tests of a 0.3 scale model of a building supported by rubber bearings and theoretical analysis, to find the most suitable systems for industrial facilities. The performance of two types of isolation system using friction dampers and lead shear dampers respectively was examined. The results showed that both systems using these hysteretic dampers could attenuate the response accelerations of the building and limit the excessive deflexion of rubber bearings. However neither system, particularly the system using friction dampers, was less effective in reducing the response acceleration of the internal equipment.