The effect of seismic isolation on performance of a residence building

Abstract

Traditional seismic design, based on use of moment frames and shear walls together to increase seismic resistance of structures, often leads to high acceleration or high interstory displacement demands. Although the structure itself remains fundamentally intact, the devices inside the structure can be damaged. This may not be tolerable for buildings with expensive equipment. Seismic isolation may be a good choice for such buildings. This study aims to evaluate the effect of seismic isolation on the performance of a typical residential building designed per 2018 Turkey Building Code. Five different models have been created with traditional model and different combinations of lead core rubber isolator or friction isolators. Beam and column elements are modeled as nonlinear frame elements with lumped plasticity by defining plastic hinges at both ends of beams and columns. Nonlinear behavior of seismic isolators has also been considered. Nonlinear time history analyses are used for performance evaluation of the building with and without seismic isolation. Seismic behavior of conventional and base-isolated buildings was examined. Period values, seismic demands and damage distribution are considered for performance evaluation. The outcomes show that seismic isolation has positive effects to decrease seismic demands. In addition, the improvements in seismic behavior are more obvious when designs different types of isolators are used together.