| Abstract: | A new base isolation method is proposed for the protection of structures. Because of the efficiency of the isolation devices, the isolated structure may be made to remain elastic throughout major earthquakes. This device consists of two sets of mutually orthogonal free rolling rods under the basement of the structure. Since the coefficient of rolling friction of the rods is very small in practice, the structure can be isolated excellently from the support excitation. In this paper, the analytical method and the response of the isolated system for different parameters, such as the periods of the structure, the coefficient of rolling friction and the masses of rolling rods, are presented. The results indicate that the proposed method is excellent in isolating the structure from support excitations, as expected. |
