Study of Base Isolation in Multi-Storeyed Buildings

C.Prabha
1
Basil Sabu
2

1
Assistant Professor, Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, Kothamangalam.
2
Post Graduate student, Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, Kothamangalam.
AbstractSeismic base isolation is a suitable technology for earthquake resistant design of variety of
buildings. The concept of protecting a building from the damaging effects of an earthquake by
introducing some type of support that isolates it from the shaking ground is an attractive one and many
mechanisms to achieve these results have been developed. The technique of base isolation involves the
introduction of devices at the foundation of a building to increase the flexibility in the horizontal plane.
The aim of the present study deals with the selection of suitable type of isolators. This study investigates
structural behavior of multi storey building with or without base isolation subjected to earthquake
ground motion. The performance of isolator is assessed from variation of base shear, acceleration,
displacement, storey drift etc.
Index Termsseismic isolation, base isolation, lead rubber bearing
I. INTRODUCTION
Base isolators are the most effective method to reduce vibrations transmitted from ground to the
structure. The role of the base isolator under seismic loading is to isolate the structure from the horizontal
components of the earthquake ground movement, whereas the vertical components are transmitted to the
structure relatively unchanged. Base isolators deflect and absorb the seismic input energy transmitted
horizontally to the structures.
Base isolation involves mounting a building on bearings of low lateral stiffness. The principle of seismic
isolation is to introduce flexibility in the basic structure in the horizontal plane, while at the same time
adding damping elements to restrict the resulting motion. The basic concept of base isolation is to increase
the natural period of the building to take it away from resonance with the forcing motions of earthquake.
Increase in the period of vibration of the structure reduces the design base shear. A well designed seismic
isolation system provides rigidity under low load levels such as wind and minor earthquakes.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Torunbalci and Ozpalanlar (2008) analyzed a six story structure with five different seismic protection
alternatives as fixed base, rubber bearing, friction pendulum bearing, additional isolated story and viscous
damper. Three dimensional nonlinear time history analysis is performed on RC building model for fixed
base case with respect to the seismic isolation and earthquake protection alternatives. In the analysis, total
base shear forces, story shear forces, maximum absolute accelerations and relative story drifts are compared
and results are discussed.
Shirule et al. (2012) used an 18-storey symmetrical R.C.C. building as a test model. Lead Rubber Bearing
(LRB) and Friction Bearing (FB) is used as isolation system in this study. Nonlinear Time history analysis is
used on both of fixed base and base isolated buildings. There are two portions; one is comparative study of
performance of fixed base condition and base isolation (LRB and FB) condition and the comparative study of
performance by three different time histories Bhuj, Koyana and Lacc T.H. Finally, base shear, displacement
and acceleration are compared from 3 times histories analysis between fixed base condition and base
isolated condition. The base shears in each direction are decreased with LRB by 46 % and with FB by 35% in
base-isolated building compared to the fixed base building.

III. STUDY AREA
The present study only focuses on the design of LRB assessing the performance of RC frames using
Lead rubber bearing by conducting parametric study with varying base isolation characteristics. Structural
responses are compared using Time History Analysis. The scope of the study restricts to the analysis of a
moment resisting frame with fixed base and base isolated conditions using Time history analysis.

IV. NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF FRAMED STRUCTURES WITH BASE ISOLATORS
The 6 storey building sits on a 18mx10.5m area. The storey height is 3m with a slab thickness of 150mm
at each floor. The column and beam cross section used in this structure is 300x400mm and live load on each
floor is taken as 3 kN/m
2
. Wall thickness is taken as 230mm. M25 and Fe415 are taken as the material
properties.
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Transactions on Engineering and Sciences ISSN: 2347-1964 (Online) 2347-1875 (Print)
Vol.2, Issue 8, August 2014
Weight of the structure (dead load + 0.25 live load) = 15125 kN
Maximum load on a support = 1035 kN

Figure 1: Plan of the building (x-y plane) and Elevation (y-z plane)
Assuming the structure is situated in zone 4 with a soil profile type with very dense soil and soft
rock with seismic source type A and closest distance to known seismic source is 10km. Time history analysis
has been carried out in the software SAP2000 using the Imperial Valley Earthquake record of May 18,
1940 also known as the El-Centro earthquake of magnitude 7 is used for obtaining the various responses.
The peak ground acceleration is 0.319g.
Isolators are provided under each column and analysed under earthquake load. After analysis using
SAP2000, the response of the building such as displacement, acceleration, storey drift, base shear and time
period are evaluated. The response of both fixed base and base isolated buildings with LRB are compared.
The parameters used in SAP for defining the LRB are shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Parameters required in SAP2000 for LRB with 20% damping.










V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A. Displacement
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12
DISPLACEMENT (m)
S
T
O
R
E
Y

H
E
I
G
H
T

(
m
)
FIXED BASE
LRB - 20% DAMPING

Figure 2: Displacement of fixed base and LRB
In case of fixed base building, displacement is zero at the base and increases as storey height increases.
But in case of base isolated building, there is a small displacement at the base and increases at a
comparatively slower rate as storey height increases. The reduction in displacement is 8.91% at the base for
base isolated building in comparison with fixed base building.
PARAMETERS U1 PARAMETERS U2 U3
Kv (kN/m) 335000 Keff (kN/m) 670 670
D 0.2 D 0.2 0.2

Ku (kN/m) 4482.3 4482.3
Qd (kN) 74.96 74.96
PYSR 0.1 0.1
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Transactions on Engineering and Sciences ISSN: 2347-1964 (Online) 2347-1875 (Print)
Vol.2, Issue 8, August 2014
B. Acceleration
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
ACCELERATION (m/s
2
)
S
T
O
R
E
Y

H
E
I
G
H
T

(
m
)
FIXED BASE
LRB - 20% DAMPING

Figure 3: Acceleration of fixed base and LRB of 6 storey building.
Reduction in acceleration at top floor is 53.49% for LRB with 20% damping in comparison with fixed
base buildings.
C. Storey Drifts
2
3
4
5
6
0.00 0.01 0.02
STOREY DRIFT (m)
F
L
O
O
R
FIXED BASE
LRB - 20% DAMPING

Figure 4: Storey drifts of fixed base and LRB of 6storey building.
In case of fixed base building, storey drift is higher at the lower floors and it decreases drastically as we
move to the top floors. In case of base isolated buildings, storey drift is comparatively lower than fixed base
buildings at the lower floors and decreases as we move to the top floors.

D. Base Shear
1
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
B
A
S
E

S
H
E
A
R

(
k
N
)
TYPE OF BUILDING
FIXED BASE
LRB - 20% DAMPING

Figure 5: Base shear of fixed base and LRB 6storey building.
Reduction in base shear is 50.75% for LRB with 20% damping.
VI. CONCLUSION
A. Base Shear
Reduction of base shear when compared to fixed base buildings is very much effective when =20% for
6 storeyed building.
B. Acceleration Response
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Transactions on Engineering and Sciences ISSN: 2347-1964 (Online) 2347-1875 (Print)
Vol.2, Issue 8, August 2014
For fixed base model, storey accelerations vary significantly from bottom to top storey. But for base
isolated model the storey accelerations are nearly the same from bottom to top. Nearly 53.49% of storey
accelerations can be reduced by base isolation.
C. Displacement Response
All fixed base building have zero displacement at base of the building whereas in case of base isolated
model appreciable amount of lateral displacement was observed at the base. Also it has been observed that
as floor height increases, lateral displacements increases drastically in case of fixed base building. But for
base isolated buildings the lateral displacement variation is smaller as the height increases.
D. Storey Drift
At base, more storey drift is observed for base isolated model compared to fixed base building. As
storey height increases, the storey drift in base isolated building decreases drastically as compared to fixed
base building.
REFERENCES
[1] Dr. Hadi Nasir Ghadhban Al-Maliki (2013) , Analytical Behavior of Multi-Storied Building with Base
Isolation Subjected to Earthquake Loading, Journal of Engineering and Development, Vol. 17, No.2, ISSN
1813- 7822.
[2] Shirule. P. A, Jagtap. L. P, Sonawane. K. R, Patil. T. D, jadwanir. N and Sonar. S. K (August 2012), Time
History Analysis of Base Isolated Multi-Storied Building, International Journal Of Earth Sciences and
Engineering, ISSN 0974-5904, Volume 05, No. 04, P.P. 809-816.
[3] Sarvesh K Jain And Shashi K Thakkar, Seismic Response of Building Base Isolated with Filled Rubber
Bearings under Earthquakes of Different Characteristics.
[4] Khante.S.N, Lavkesh R.Wankhade (2010), Study of Seismic Response of Symmetric and Asymmetric Base
Isolated Building with Mass Asymmetry in Plan, International Journal Of Civil and Structural Engineering
Volume X, No X, ISSN 0976 4399
[5] Torunbalci N and Ozpalanlar G, Earthquake Response Analysis of Mid-Storey Buildings Isolated with Various
Seismic Isolation Techniques, The 14
th
World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Beijing, China.
[6] Pankaj Agarwal & Manish Shrikhande, Earthquake Resistant Design of Structures, PHI Learning, New
Delhi, 2010.
[7] Naeim F & Kelly J. M, Design of Seismic Isolated Structures: From Theory to Practice, John Willey and Sons
Inc., New York 1999.

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Techscripts
Transactions on Engineering and Sciences ISSN: 2347-1964 (Online) 2347-1875 (Print)
Vol.2, Issue 8, August 2014