| Abstract: | In order to achieve a low isolation frequency, elastomeric bearings used for base isolation of buildings usually have low shear rigidity which leads to a significant reduction in the buckling load. The effects of compression load on the bearing behaviour are therefore an important consideration. A study of seismic response of base isolated buildings is presented in this paper, fully accounting for the P-Δ effects of isolation bearings. An analytical procedure is formulated that treats separately the superstructure and the supporting bearings and assembles the governing equations via the interaction forces at the base deck. The resulting equations are then solved step-by-step numerically. Numerical results obtained for a base isolated five-storey shear building show that neglecting the P-Δ effects can lead to considerable errors in the computed seismic response when the buckling safety factor of bearings is low. |
