Experimental Investigations on Laminated Rubber Bearings

Increasing application of base isolation as a seismic protection method has subsequently increased its analytical and experimental studies. Being the most critical part of the base isolated buildings, accurate evaluation of structural properties and precise modeling of isolation devices is of utmost importance in predicting the response of the buildings during the earthquakes. This technical note is concerned with experimental study on laminated rubber bearings. Free vibration and harmonic base excitation tests are performed on a three-storey building model to evaluate the properties of the structure, efficiency of the system, and effect of base excitations. It is found that these experimental methods can effectively be used for this purpose.