Seismic Performance of Storage Tank Isolated by Different Isolators Through Real-Time Hybrid Simulation

Abstract

There are three kinds of isolators commonly used in storage tank, friction pendulum bearing (FPB), laminated rubber bearing (LRB), and variable curvature friction pendulum bearing (VCFPB), respectively. Real-time hybrid simulation is conducted in this paper to compare the seismic performance of the storage tank isolated by the above three types of bearings. The storage tank is used as the physical substructure for experimental testing, and the isolators are adopted as the numerical substructure for numerical simulation. The isolation performance is estimated by the following perspectives: deformation of the isolator, shear force, overturning moment, and input energy. Test results show that the deformation of LRB is the largest, which can be twice that of FPB, and that larger deformation will enlarge the seismic energy input into the storage tank. Moreover, the low-frequency components of shear force and overturning moment are amplified by LRB. In contrast, the FPB and VCFPB have a good performance on all frequency bands. Particularly, the softening mechanism enables VCFPB to have better seismic performance and have a reduction rate of about twice that of LRB.