SEISMIC RESPONSE OF FIXED BASE AND ISOLATED BASE BUILDING

Monika Jain1, S. S. Sanghai2

1
GH Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur
2
Asst. Prof GH Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur

Abstract
Earthquakes are one of the natural hazards that occur due to sudden violent shaking of earth’s surface which causes
damage to property and especially to man-made buildings and structures. G+5 building model is considered for this
study. In passive systems of earthquake resistant structures base isolation is one of the most powerful system. The
application of base isolation has been gained so much of popularity in last few year. The performance of base isolation
is also depends on its type and the type of underlying soil also. In this paper Non-linear time history analysis has been
performed on reinforced concrete building to understand the response of isolated base building. For this purpose SAP
2000 nonlinear software is used. The main objective of this study is to compare the response of seismic response of
both conventional fixed base and isolated base buildings. Results are studied on the basis of acceleration,
displacement, base shear and natural fundamental time period on rubber isolated and fixed base buildings.

Keywords: Base Isolation; Seismic Response; Time History

1. INTRODUCTION

Earthquake resistant building is basically to design a building which can withstand earthquake forces. As Seismic base
isolation is a well-defined passive control system of earthquake for building. Earthquakes tremors are of greatest
hazards; as due to these tremors there is serious damage to life as well as property also, the effect is most severe in
manmade structures. To overcome these hazards caused due to earthquake waves there are so many modifications has
to be done in current structural design by engineers and architects to nullify this effect. The main objective of seismic
base isolation is to improve the response of building during earthquake forces i.e. during horizontal ground shaking
of building. Seismic isolation provides horizontally flexible but vertically very stiff structure due to installation of
isolation device between superstructure and substructure. Hence the nonlinear dynamic response of building is thus
changed such that the natural fundamental time period of building is increased as compared with the fixed based
building. As a result of this there is serious reduction in the response of building such as acceleration, forces and
displacement in comparison with the non-isolated building. Quake proof building is basically to design structure which
can withstand earthquake force such as the use of shear walls, frames with bracing, or moment-resistant frames,
damper and isolators. In the present study, seismic base isolation is used for earthquake proof building design.

Fig.1 C/S of Lead Rubber Bearing Fig.2 Friction Pendulum Bearing

The isolation should (1) resist the load of superstructure (2) Should consume energy (3) should give horizontal
flexibility. Hence a single device with these all property is needed. Also it should be stiff to prevent minor frequents
tremors. Laminated rubber bearing is the simplest form of bearing. Vulcanized bonding method is used on sheets of
rubber to make bearings. For this steel plate with adhesive property is being used with an un-vulcanized elastomer. In
this study rubber isolator is used.

As one might guess, the necessary stiffness is often hard to predict, spring needs to be stressed to efficiently store its
energy. Then, the kinetic energy must be reduced by distributing the mass of the spring in such a way as to reduce its
velocity (Virgin and Plaut) [1]. Dinu Bratosin [2] studied in his paper about the effect of mechanical properties on the
response of base isolation system. In this paper single degree of freedom system is used for non-linear analysis.
Huge amount of literature is available on the isolated structures and their earthquake performance (Ribakov
and Iskhakov [3], Hossein Monfared et.al. [4], Chandak [5], James M. Kelly [6]. There are basically two main types
of isolator are available 1) Rubber bearing isolators 2) Friction sliders. Amongst these lead rubber isolator as a type
of rubber isolator is used for this study. (Farzad Naeim and James Kelly). [7]

For this analysis Time history analysis is performed on both fixed base and isolated base buildings by Indian code of
reference i.e.IS 1893.

1.1 Concept of Base Isolation

Seismic base isolation is basically installed to prolong the natural time period of the structure with the help of the
specially designed system, figure 1.1 shows base isolation system. As in 90% of ordinarily designed building the
frequency of building and earthquake waves get the match, due to this condition resonance occurs and forces are
amplified. Use of base isolation increase the time period of building and resonance is avoided. Isolators are designed
with inherent damping to reduce the story drift period of building and thus frequency of structure reduces, also the
spectral acceleration of structure reduces. The first dynamic mode of the isolated structure involves deformation only
in the isolation system, and the structure above remains almost rigid. An isolated system does not absorb the vibrating
energy, but rather deflects it through the dynamics of the system. It lengthens the natural period of vibration of the
structure so that the responses are greatly reduced. In some cases a passive damper may also use to control excessive
displacement. Figure 3 represents the shifting of period by the isolator and the resulting reduction in the acceleration
response.

Acceleration -------> Period Shift

Period ---->
Fig 3 Period shift induced by an isolator [9]

The main purpose of this paper is to understand the properties of rubber isolator and to study the behavior of isolated
structure with the help of isolator. The analysis results are compared on the basis of shear force, displacement,
acceleration, natural time period and energy dissipation of both fixed and isolated buildings.

2. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
Base isolation reduced the structural response by passive control. A mathematical model of fixed base and base-
isolated model is as shown in fig.3 and fig.4. All isolators does not behaves in same way hence it is essential to study
the behavior of single degree freedom model. Hence governing equation of motion for both fixed base and isolated
base models are given below.

The equation of motion for the fixed base model is given in equation (i),
 𝑚𝑢̈ + 𝑐𝑢̇ + 𝑘𝑢 = −𝑚𝑢𝑔̈ (i)
Where M is mass, c is damping, k is stiffness of model and u is displacement in x direction.

The equation of motion for the isolated model under seismic excitation is given in equation (ii),
𝑚𝑢̈ + 𝐹 + 𝑐𝑢̇ + 𝑘𝑢 = −𝑚𝑢𝑔̈ (ii)
Where M is total mass of model and isolator, c is damping of model, k is stiffness of model and F is restoring force in
x direction.

A G+5 story building is taken and modeled in SAP 2000 software. Following are the properties of Building which are
given in model.
The properties of model are given below in Table I.

Table I: Properties of G+5 model

M Mass of model (KN) 1858 KN

Kf Kf Stiffness of column(N/mm) 16333.73 KN/m

Kf =( + )
2 2

C Inherent damping of structure 5% for RCC structure

The N-link element used for this study is rubber isolator. The behavior of N-Link element ‘Rubber’ is
similar to Rubber isolator, hence this element is used to model isolator in software. The properties of
isolator are shown in Table II.

Table II: Properties of Isolator

Effective stiffness Keff (kN/m) 1195

Yield force F(kN) 23.36

Post elastic stiffness K2 (kN/m) 1101.2

Pre elastic stiffness K1 (kN/m) 11012

Stiffness ratio K1/K2 0.1

Yield displacement Dy 0.002357

Total rubber stiffness Kr (kN/m) 1101.2

With properties as given above the building frame is modeled in the SAP2000 software with lead
rubber isolator. Nonlinear dynamic Time history analysis is performed on both fixed base and isolated
base models by using 2 past recorded earthquakes.
The acceleration time history records which are used for analysis are Loma Prieto and Imperial Valley of
PGA 0.328g and 0.248g respectively.
Soil strata is considered to be hard with V zone factor, Response reduction factor is taken as 5 and Importance factor
is 1 [12].
The Non-linear Time History analysis is carried using software SAP2000 and different parameters are
studied for the comparison of fixed base and isolated base models.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

Analysis is done for both X direction for fixed base and isolated base and is also carried for different story heights of
the building .The height of isolator depends on the stiffness and total load on the isolator. The corresponding results
are shown below for both the conditions.
The natural fundamental time period for fixed based and isolated base models are shown in Table IV.

Table IV: Comparison of Natural Time Period

Natural Time Period

Fixed base 1 sec
Isolated base 4.5 sec

From the table IV it is clear that due to installation of isolator the natural fundamental time period is increases as due
to increase in displacement in initial stages. Hence frequency of vibration reduces.

FLOOR DISPLACEMENT Fixed base FLOOR DISPLACEMENT

0.01 Fixed base
0.004
Isolated
Base 0.005 Isolated
0.002
Displacement (m)

Displacement (m)

base
-2E-17
-1E-17
0 10 20
-0.005
-0.002

-0.004 -0.01

-0.006 -0.015 Time (sec)

Time (sec)

Fig.5 Time v/s displacement for Loma Prieta Fig.6 Time v/s displacement for Imperial Valley

4 Time v/s Acceleration FLOOR ACCELERATION

Fixed Fixed base
3 base 6
Isolated base
2
Acceleration (m/s2)

4
Acceleration (m/s2)

1
2
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 0
-1 0 5 10 15
-2 -2

-3 -4
-4 Time (sec)
Time (sec) -6

Fig.7 Time v/s Acceleration for Loma Prieta Fig.8 Time v/s Acceleration for Imperial Valley
Fig.5 and Fig.6 shows the variation in displacement with respect to time for Imperial Valley and Loma Prieta
earthquake. Comparing the top slab displacement between the fixed-base and isolated base structure reveals that the
displacement is increasing in initial stage and later it reduces up to considerable limit. It was observed that there is
nearly 55% reduction in displacement. Fig.7 and Fig.8 shows the variation of acceleration for Imperial Valley and
Loma Prieta earthquake. On comparing the results of maximum acceleration for fixed base and isolated base model,
it exhibits that, there is reduction in acceleration demand on the superstructure. From Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, it is observed
that the acceleration is reduced by 40% as compared with fixed base model.

Fig. 9 shows the comparison of maximum base shear of fixed base and isolated base models for both earthquakes.

Maximum Base Shear

50
Base Reaction (kN)

40

30 Fixed base

20 Isolated
base
10

0
Loma prieta Imperial valley

Fig.9 Maximum Base shear for Loma Prieta and Imperial Valley Earthquake

As the maximum acceleration is decreasing with use of isolators, the maximum base shear is also reduced. It was
observed that, the maximum base shear reduces by 40% for Loma Prieta Earthquake and 20% for Imperial Valley
Earthquake.

Fig.10 and fig.11 shows the amount of total energy dissipated by isolator.

Fig.10 Energy dissipation by link element for Fig.11 Energy dissipation by link element
Loma prieta EQ for Imperial Valley EQ

Fig.10 and Fig.11 shows the curves for input energy and energy dissipation by link element. It was observed that,
nearly 85% of the input energy is dissipated through the isolators hence improving the response of the model.
 STORY DRIFT STORY DRIFT
7 7
6 6
5 Fixed Base 5
Floor Level

Fixed Base

Floor level
4 4
3 Rubber 3
2 isolator 2 Rubber
1 1
Isolator
0 0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 -0.01 0.01 0.03 0.05
Drift (m) Drift (m)

Fig.12 Story Drift for Loma prieta EQ Fig.13 Story Drift for Imperial Valley EQ

Fig.12 and Fig.13 shows the story drift for different floor level for Loma prieta and Imperial Valley earthquakes for
both fixed base and isolated base buildings. The graph shows that as for conventionally fixed base building the value
of drift goes on changing with respect to floor level but after introducing the isolator to the sub-base of building its
displacement increases for first few floors and then it became constant. As due to this the upper floors of building
have negligible displacement compared with fixed base building.

4 CONCLUSION

Following are some conclusions which can be made from the analysis.
From above results, it is observed that base isolation reduces the overall seismic response of building in
comparison to fixed base building and controls the severe damages in building during ground shaking at the time of
earthquake. The comparative results of conventional fixed base and isolated base model shows that the base shear
reduces whereas the lateral displacement increases as compared with the fixed base model. As the base reaction
decreases the acceleration demand of building is also reduces compared with conventional fixed base building. The
conventional fixed based building have lesser fundamental natural time period of vibration than isolated model. Due
to increase in natural time period the building become flexible such that the frequency of building reduces. With
comparison to input energy there is approximately 75% of total input energy is dissipating through isolator element.
From the result it is also clear that, due to energy dissipation and transfer, the seismic behavior of superstructure
reduces severely as compared with the normal fixed base model. Again the story drift of building increases for initial
stages but later it becomes steady due to constant displacement difference for upper floor.

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