Overview

of
Base Isolation System

CONTENTS:

1. INTRODUCTION AND
MOTIVATION
2. PRINCIPLE OF BASE
ISOLATION
3. WORKING OF BASE ISOLATION
SYSTEM
4. BASE ISOLATION SYSTEM FOR
DIFFERENT TYPES OF
BUILDINGS
5. EXAMPLE OF BASE ISOLATION
6. ADVANTAGES OR BENEFITS

INTRODUCTION
AND
MOTIVATION

Now a days, due to various disturbances under earth

surface, many areas are getting effected with
earthquakes, and due to which there is huge amount
of loss to the people, to a society and sometimes to a
country too. And for this, the preventive measures
should be taken and for that best solution can be
Base Isolation System which can save a structure
from getting effected by earthquake at least for some
extent.
Motivation of Base Isolation is to make structures
earth quake resistant, so that a quake would not be
harmful or it can be said as effect of quake would
decrease.
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PRINCIPLE
OF
BASE ISOLATION

The main principle behind Base

Isolation System is to reduce the
friction between foundation and
bottom surface of the building or
between the columns and the
structure above it so that, when
there is an quake, the forces
doesnt act completely on the
structure and helps the building
in being rigid.

BUILDING WITH BASE ISOLATION

Isolation at
foundation

WORKING

Of
BASE ISOLATION
SYSTEM

As the principle is mentioned above, then comes the

question- How Exactly It Works? and for that here is
the answer.

isolated

Fixed

Response to
seismic forces

Most of the isolators generally exhibit non-linear

behavior. When seismic forces acts on the base
isolator, the damping of that particular isolator
increases which stop the forces further, to act on
the structure which leads to decrease in seismic
response. If the response to seismic forces
decreases, it is obvious that damage to the
structure would be less.

BASE ISOLATION
FOR VARIOUS
TYPES OF
BUILDINGS

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Generally, buildings are of two types:

1. Multi-story Buildings
2. Single-story buildings

For Multi-story buildings:

Base isolation plays an very important role in the case of multistory buildings.
Base isolation system helps to reduce STORY DRIFT , due to
which damage or response due to seismic forces would be less

For Single-Story Buildings:

When compared to multi-story buildings, single story buildings
doesnt require perfect base isolation system, as there wont be
any story drift.
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If any of these types

of buildings are
supported with
columns, then if
base isolators are
placed between the
columns and the
upper structure, it
would be completely
safe when seismic
forces acts on it.
Thus, Base Isolators
would be very much
useful to multi story
buildings and buildings
supported with columns.

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EXAMPLE
OF
BASE ISOLATION

13

Lets consider the example of Oakland City Hall of USA. This

is first high rise building of USA, of height 324 feet. It is of
continuous reinforced mat concrete. In 1989, the building was
effected with a earthquake named Loma Prieta earthquake, it
was severely damaged. As it is one of the famous historic
building and is present in historic register, various studies were
done to renew it as earthquake resistant structure and found
that Base Isolation System would be perfect, for making it as
a earthquake resistant structure and for making it as an base
isolated structure, they used
111 rubber isolation bearings
in which 36 of them of were lead cores

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OAKLAND CITY HALL

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RESPONSE TO SEISMIC
FORCES IN THE CASE OF
OAKLAND CITY HALL

BASE FIXED

BASE
ISOLATED

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BENEFITS
OF
BASE ISOLATION

17

There are many benefits of Base Isolation System, and

few of them are as follows :
1. Response to Seismic Forces :
Damage would be less as response due to seismic
forces would be less.
2. Story Drift :
Reduces story drift so that there wont be more
damage.
3. Failure :
It helps the structure from not getting failed, as
foremost reason is, it reduces story drift.
4. Economical :
Base Isolation is economical when compared to
various other devices such as energy dissipation
devices etc., to resist seismic forces.
5. It would be very beneficial for various buildings like
hospitals, historic retrofits, government buildings etc

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CONCLUSIONS :
Very effective method.
Helps to reduce story drift.
Economical, when compared to other
technologies.
Easy to install.

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REFERENCES :
Dynamics of structures, a book by Anil.K.Chopra.
https://www.academia.edu/1878141/BUI

LDINGS_WITH_BASE_ISOLATION_TECHNIQUE
S_Report_
http://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/wcee/article/11_
269.PDF
http://mceer.buffalo.edu/education/reu/04Pre
sentations/009Carrillo.pdf
http://web.mit.edu/istgroup/ist/documents/I
stanbul2001.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_isolation

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