Seismic Performance Evaluations of Mega-Sub Isolation System

Abstract

This paper presents mega-sub isolation system. Shaking table test of the mega-sub isolation system is carried out in this paper. Three test models have been developed. One is called aseismic model, in which all the substructures are fixedly connected with the megastructures. The second one is known as isolated model, where the substructures are connected with the megastructures with isolators, and the last one is called the lower substructure consolidated (LSC) model, in which all the substructures except for the substructures at the lowest level, in other words, substructures at the second mega floor, are isolated from the megastructures. Nonlinear dynamic time analysis of the test models is conducted by SAP2000. Acceleration responses of the megastructure, story drift responses of the megastructure and the substructure, and the deformations of the isolation layer are compared between experimental and numerical simulation results. The results show that the experimental results and numerical simulation results agree well with each other, and the isolated model and LSC model perform better than the counterpart aseismic model. The structures with isolation devices can reduce the structural responses effectively and are much safer than the structure without isolation devices.