The effect of seismic base isolation on structural response of a 12-story hotel building in Padang, Indonesia

Abstract

The amount of potential investment in Padang City, Indonesia since 2017 attracted many investors to contribute to the city. One of the investments is a 12-story hotel that will be constructed in By Pass Street of the city. The hotel is located in a high seismic zone area, so the seismic base isolation has been proposed to be used in the hotel building. The main aim of using a seismic base isolation device is to reduce the inertia forces introduced in the structure due to earthquakes by shifting the fundamental period of the structure out of dangerous resonance range and concentration of the deformation demand at the isolation system. An analytical study on the Reinforced Concrete (RC) hotel building with and without rubber bearing (RB) base isolation is carried out using the response spectrum and time history analysis methods. The results show that internal forces and inter-story drift of the building with high damping rubber bearing (HDRB) are lower than that of the fixed base with a remarkable margin. From this study, it is recommended to use the HDRB base isolation for medium and high rise buildings with soft soil in Padang City, Indonesia.