<p>The full-scale base-isolated structure studied in this dissertation is the only base-isolated building in South Island of New Zealand. It sustained hundreds of earthquake ground motions from September 2010 and well into 2012. Several large earthquake responses were recorded in December 2011 by NEES@UCLA and by GeoNet recording station nearby Christchurch Women's Hospital. The primary focus of this dissertation is to advance the state-of-the art of the methods to evaluate performance of seismic-isolated structures and the effects of soil-structure interaction by developing new data processing methodologies to overcome current limitations and by implementing advanced numerical modeling in OpenSees for direct analysis of soil-structure interaction.</p><p>This dissertation presents a novel method for recovering force-displacement relations within the isolators of building structures with unknown nonlinearities from sparse seismic-response measurements of floor accelerations. The method requires only direct matrix calculations (factorizations and multiplications); no iterative trial-and-error methods are required. The method requires a mass matrix, or at least an estimate of the floor masses. A stiffness matrix may be used, but is not necessary. Essentially, the method operates on a matrix of incomplete measurements of floor accelerations. In the special case of complete floor measurements of systems with linear dynamics, real modes, and equal floor masses, the principal components of this matrix are the modal responses. In the more general case of partial measurements and nonlinear dynamics, the method extracts a number of linearly-dependent components from Hankel matrices of measured horizontal response accelerations, assembles these components row-wise and extracts principal components from the singular value decomposition of this large matrix of linearly-dependent components. These principal components are then interpolated between floors in a way that minimizes the curvature energy of the interpolation. This interpolation step can make use of a reduced-order stiffness matrix, a backward difference matrix or a central difference matrix. The measured and interpolated floor acceleration components at all floors are then assembled and multiplied by a mass matrix. The recovered in-service force-displacement relations are then incorporated into the OpenSees soil structure interaction model.</p><p>Numerical simulations of soil-structure interaction involving non-uniform soil behavior are conducted following the development of the complete soil-structure interaction model of Christchurch Women's Hospital in OpenSees. In these 2D OpenSees models, the superstructure is modeled as two-dimensional frames in short span and long span respectively. The lead rubber bearings are modeled as elastomeric bearing (Bouc Wen) elements. The soil underlying the concrete raft foundation is modeled with linear elastic plane strain quadrilateral element. The non-uniformity of the soil profile is incorporated by extraction and interpolation of shear wave velocity profile from the Canterbury Geotechnical Database. The validity of the complete two-dimensional soil-structure interaction OpenSees model for the hospital is checked by comparing the results of peak floor responses and force-displacement relations within the isolation system achieved from OpenSees simulations to the recorded measurements. General explanations and implications, supported by displacement drifts, floor acceleration and displacement responses, force-displacement relations are described to address the effects of soil-structure interaction.</p> / Dissertation

As the cost of land in cities increases, the need to build multistory buildings in close proximity to each other also increases. Sometimes, construction materials, other objects and any projections from a building may also decrease the spacing provided between the buildings. This leads to the problem of pounding of these closely placed buildings when responding to earthquake ground motion. The recent advent of base isolation systems and their use as an efficient earthquake force resisting mechanism has led to their increased use in civil engineering structures. At the same time, building codes that reflect best design practice are also evolving. The movement of these base isolated buildings can also result in building pounding. Since base isolation is itself a relatively new technique, pounding phenomenon in base isolated buildings have not been adequately investigated to date. This study looks at the base isolated response of a single two story building and adjacent two story building systems. Four earthquakes with increasing intensity were used in this study. It was found that it is difficult to anticipate the response of the adjacent buildings due to non- linear behavior of pounding and base isolation. The worst case for pounding was found to occur when a fixed base and base isolated buildings were adjacent to each other.

Basado en la idea de reducir la demanda sísmica en lugar de aumentar la capacidad resistente de las estructuras, el aislamiento sísmico es un método simple para mitigar o reducir los posibles daños producidos por los terremotos. La correcta aplicación de esta tecnología conduce a un mejor comportamiento de las estructuras, que sigue siendo esencialmente elástico durante los terremotos de gran magnitud. El núcleo de esta tecnología es el aislador. La mayoría de los aisladores sísmicos disponibles en la actualidad siguen teniendo limitaciones prácticas que impiden que funcionen según lo previsto e imponen restricciones a su uso efectivo y al nivel de protección proporcionado. En esta Tesis, se presenta un aislador sísmico avanzado llamado "roll-n-cage (RNC)". Se propone investigar su eficiencia a través de simulación numérica, en un intento de crear un sistema de aislamiento sísmico práctico, efectivo y económico, que tiene por objeto resolver los principales inconvenientes de los actuales sistemas de aislamiento sísmico, manteniendo sus principales ventajas. Este aislador incorpora aislamiento, disipación de energía, amortiguamiento y capacidad de fuerza recuperadora en una sola unidad. Además, ofrece una resistencia al viento significativa y una amplia gama de flexibilidad horizontal, por lo que es adecuado para proteger las estructuras de masa ligera, moderada y grande, así como para proteger equipos sensibles, hardware y / o antigüedades alojados en edificios. Por otra parte, las cuestiones relativas a la viabilidad, los costes de construcción y la disponibilidad de materiales, reducción o prevención de las respuestas de torsión y la resistencia a la elevación son abordados a fondo durante el diseño del aislador RNC. El aislador RNC propuesto es descrito en profundidad y sus principios de funcionamiento son presentados en detalle. La caracterización mecánica del dispositivo se ha llevado a cabo por medio de un código computacional sofisticado que simula la respuesta de los dispositivos como si estuvieran sujetos a una máquina de pruebas reales. A través de este esquema, se consigue analizar numéricamente el comportamiento del aislador RNC bajo el efecto simultáneo de cargas horizontales y verticales, como se da típicamente en situaciones prácticas. Además, se presenta una descripción matemática de las principales características asociadas a la rodadura de los aisladores RNC. Asimismo se obtiene un modelo matemático para describir en una forma razonable y manejable la relación fuerza desplazamiento exhibida por el aislador de RNC. Para evaluar la viabilidad del aislador RNC y para comprobar su capacidad para proteger los sistemas estructurales y no estructurales de los riesgos sísmicos, el dispositivo se implementa numéricamente en una variedad de estructuras con masas ligeras y grandes, además de en equipos sensibles alojados en los pisos superiores de dichas estructuras. Para extraer conclusiones de carácter relativamente general sobre el funcionamiento del aislador RNC, se estudia una amplia gama de terremotos y de características y propiedades de los aisladores y de las estructuras.Los resultados numéricos revelan que el aislador RNC propuesto puede reducir la respuesta sísmica frente a un amplio rango de excitaciones sísmicas, mientras que exhibe un rendimiento robusto para una gran variedad de estructuras. La Tesis incluye como apéndice un estudio en profundidad sobre el modelo de histéresis de Bouc-Wen. El estudio contiene una revisión de los primeros y últimos avances y aplicaciones de este modelo, que es ampliamente utilizado en la descripción de fenómenos de histéresis en las estructuras. / Based on the concept of reducing seismic demand rather than increasing the earthquake resistant capacity of structures, seismic isolation is a surprisingly simple approach to mitigate or reduce earthquake damage potential. Proper application of this complex technology leads to better performing structures that will remain essentially elastic during large earthquakes. The core of this technology is the isolator. Most currently available seismic isolators still have practical limitations causing them not to function as anticipated and impose restrictions to their proper use and to the provided protection level. In this dissertation, an advanced rolling-based seismic isolator, named roll-n-cage (RNC) isolator, is proposed and investigated via numerical simulation as an attempt to create a practical, effective, and economic seismic isolation system that aims to fix the main drawbacks of the current seismic isolation systems while keeping their main advantages. This isolator incorporates isolation, energy dissipation, buffer and restoring force mechanisms in a single unit. Further, it offers a significant wind resistance and a great range of horizontal flexibility making it ideal to protect light, moderate and heavy mass structures as well as precious housed motion-sensitive equipment, hardware and/or antiquities. Moreover, issues related to practicality, construction costs and material availability, reducing or preventing torsional responses and uplift resistance are thoroughly addressed during the RNC bearing design.The proposed RNC isolator is deeply described and its principles of operation are extensively highlighted. The mechanical characterization of the device has been carried out by means of a sophisticated computer code in a machine-like environment, which accurately simulates the response of the device subjected to a real testing machine. Through this machine-like environment, a general scheme is followed to numerically examine the behavior of the RNC isolator under simultaneous horizontal and vertical loads as in typical practical situations. Further, a mathematical description of the main features associated to rolling of the RNC isolator is presented. An input-output mathematical model is obtained to describe in a reasonable and manageable form the force-displacement relationship exhibited by the RNC isolator.To assess the feasibility of the RNC isolator and to check its ability to protect structural and nonstructural systems from seismic hazards, it is numerically implemented to a variety of structures having light to heavy masses, in addition to motion-sensitive equipment housed in upper building floors. Further, and to draw relatively general conclusions about the performance of the RNC isolator, a wide range of ground motions, isolator characteristics and structural properties is considered. The numerical results reveal that the proposed RNC isolation bearing can mitigate the seismic responses under a variety of ground motion excitations while exhibiting robust performance for a wide range of structures. The dissertation is appended with an in-depth survey, that contains a review of the past, recent developments and implementations of the versatile Bouc-Wen model of smooth hysteresis, which is used extensively in modeling the hysteresis phenomenon in the dynamically excited nonlinear structures. This survey is the first of its kind about the model since its origination more than 30 years ago. The objective is to present some of the popular approaches that have utilized and/or developed that model to capture the hysteretic behavior offered by a variety of nonlinear systems. Then, the evaluation of their results and contributions (if any) is carried out to highlight their assets and limitations and to identify future directions in this research area.

Simplified methods of analysis described in codes and specifications for seismically isolated structures are always used either directly in special cases or for checking the results of nonlinear response history analysis (RHA). Important predictions for seismically isolated structures by simplified methods are the maximum displacements and base shears of the isolation system. In this study, the maximum isolator displacements and base shears determined by nonlinear RHA are compared with those determined by the equivalent lateral force (ELF) procedure in order to assess the accuracy of the simplified method in the case of bi-directional excitations with near-field characteristics. However, although there are currently many methods for ground motion selection and scaling, little guidance is available to classify which method is more appropriate than the others in any applications. Features of this study are that the ground motions used in analysis are selected and scaled using contemporary concepts and that the ground excitation is considered biv directional. The variations in response of isolated structures due to application of ground motions uni-directionally and bi-directionally are also studied by employing a scaling procedure that is appropriate for the bi-directional analysis. The proposed new scaling methodology is an amplitude scaling method that is capable of preserving the horizontal orthogonal components and it is developed especially for dynamic analysis of isolated structures. Analyses are conducted for two different symmetric reinforced concrete isolated structure for two different soil conditions in structural analysis program SAP2000. Effect of asymmetry in superstructure on isolator displacement is also investigated with further analyses considering 5% mass eccentricity at each floor level. Furthermore, once the significance of the orthogonal horizontal component on the response of isolation system is shown, the biaxial interaction of hysteretic behavior of lead rubber bearings is implemented in OpenSees by developing a subroutine which was not readily available.

As the cost of land in cities increases, the need to build multistory buildings in close proximity to each other also increases. Sometimes, construction materials, other objects and any projections from a building may also decrease the spacing provided between the buildings. This leads to the problem of pounding of these closely placed buildings when responding to earthquake ground motion. The recent advent of base isolation systems and their use as an efficient earthquake force resisting mechanism has led to their increased use in civil engineering structures. At the same time, building codes that reflect best design practice are also evolving. The movement of these base isolated buildings can also result in building pounding. Since base isolation is itself a relatively new technique, pounding phenomenon in base isolated buildings have not been adequately investigated to date. This study looks at the base isolated response of a single two story building and adjacent two story building systems. Four earthquakes with increasing intensity were used in this study. It was found that it is difficult to anticipate the response of the adjacent buildings due to non- linear behavior of pounding and base isolation. The worst case for pounding was found to occur when a fixed base and base isolated buildings were adjacent to each other.

Αντικείμενο της Διατριβής αποτελεί η διερεύνηση των δυνατοτήτων του Γεωαφρού Διογκωμένης Πολυστερίνης (ΓΔΠ) για τη χρησιμοποίησή του ως σεισμικό μονωτικό παρέμβλημα σε συμβατικούς τοίχους εδαφικής αντιστήριξης (τύπου βαρύτητας ή προβόλου) καθώς και σε ακρόβαθρα γεφυρών. Η παρούσα έρευνα βασίζεται στην αριθμητική ανάλυση της συμπεριφοράς συμβατικών τοίχων αντιστήριξης κάτω από τη δράση οριζόντιας σεισμικής διέγερσης βάσης. Οι αναλύσεις διεξάγονται τόσο για μη-μονωμένους τοίχους όσο και για τοίχους σεισμικά μονωμένους με παρέμβλημα ΓΔΠ. Το παρέμβλημα έχει τη μορφή κατακόρυφου φύλλου μικρού σχετικά πάχους που τοποθετείται σε επαφή με την πίσω όψη του τοίχου παρεμβαλλόμενο μεταξύ τοίχου και επιχώματος. Οι αναλύσεις διεξάγονται χρησιμοποιώντας τη μέθοδο πεπερασμένων στοιχείων (κώδικας PLAXIS v.8) με την παραδοχή ιξωδοελαστικής συμπεριφοράς εδαφικού επιχώματος και κατακόρυφου ελαστικού τοίχου δεδομένης ευκαμψίας και στροφικής αντίστασης της βάσης. Ως δυναμική διέγερση βάσης χρησιμοποιούνται αρμονικές χρονοϊστορίες επιτάχυνσης μεταβαλλόμενου εύρους και συχνότητας. Κατ’ αρχήν αξιολογείται η αξιοπιστία της χρησιμοποιούμενης μεθόδου ανάλυσης και τα αποτελέσματα των αναλύσεων συγκρίνονται με ανάλογα δημοσιευμένα αποτελέσματα και διαπιστώνεται πολύ καλή συμφωνία όσον αφορά την τιμή της σεισμικής ώθησης και το ύψος εφαρμογής της από τη βάση του τοίχου. Για την περίπτωση των σεισμικά μονωμένων (με παρέμβλημα ΓΔΠ) τοίχων οι εξεταζόμενες παράμετροι περιλαμβάνουν το σχήμα του παρεμβλήματος, την πυκνότητα και το ποσοστιαίο (σε σχέση με το ύψος του τοίχου) πάχος του ΓΔΠ, tr, την ευκαμψία του τοίχου, την καθ’ ύψος μεταβολή του μέτρου ελαστικότητας του ΓΔΠ και τη συχνότητα διέγερσης της βάσης. Η αποτελεσματικότητα της σεισμικής μόνωσης περιγράφεται ποσοτικά με τον συντελεστή Ar που ορίζεται ως το επί τοις εκατό ποσοστό της μείωσης (λόγω μόνωσης) της σεισμικής ώθησης σε σχέση με την τιμή που προκύπτει χωρίς μόνωση. Σχετικά με το σχήμα του παρεμβλήματος (κατά την έννοια του ύψους του τοίχου) διεξήχθησαν αναλύσεις για ορθογωνικό σχήμα και τρία τριγωνικά σχήματα και τα αποτελέσματα υποδεικνύουν ότι η βέλτιστη αποτελεσματικότητα επιτυγχάνεται με χρήση ορθογωνικού σχήματος. Επίσης διαπιστώθηκε ότι είναι δυνατή η επίτευξη τιμών της αποτελεσματικότητας σεισμικής μόνωσης Ar>50% για τιμές πάχους παρεμβλήματος tr 15%. Τα αποτελέσματα υποδεικνύουν επίσης ότι, επειδή η προκύπτουσα σχέση Ar - tr είναι μη γραμμική, απαιτούνται σχετικά μεγάλα πάχη παρεμβλήματος για τη μείωση της σεισμικής ώθησης σε ποσοστό μεγαλύτερο του 50%. Τέλος, για τον αντισεισμικό σχεδιασμό τοίχων αντιστήριξης προτείνεται δοκιμαστικά η εφαρμογή διαδικασίας που βασίζεται στον ΕΑΚ 2000, χρησιμοποιώντας όμως διπλάσια τιμή για το συντελεστή συμπεριφοράς, qw, εφόσον επιδιώκεται η επίτευξη αποτελεσματικότητας Ar=50%. / The objective of the Thesis is the investigation of the possibility to use the Expanded Polystyrene Geofoam (EPS Geofoam) for the seismic isolation of earth retaining walls. The research is based on the results of numerical analyses (using the finite element method) for determining the response of vertical walls supporting horizontal backfill and subjected to horizontal harmonic base excitation. The seismic isolation is realized by placing a column of EPS geofoam (compressible inclusion) between the back-face of the wall and the backfill. The response is calculated by using elastic analysis (with viscous damping for the backfill material). The efficiency of seismic isolation is quantitavely described by the Isolation Efficiency, Ar, defined as the ratio (in percent) of the reduction of earthquake thrust (due to isolation) to the earthquake thrust without isolation. The parameters investigated are the shape of the inclusion, the density and the (percent) thickness, tr, of the EPS geofoam, the wall flexibility, the variation of EPS geofoam modulus of elasticity with depth as well as the amplitude and frequency of excitation. The results of the analyses indicate that the optimum shape of the inclusion is the orthogonal (i.e. constant thickness with depth) whereas the effect of the inhomogeneity of the EPS geofoam along the depth of the wall is negligible, as long as the analysis is conducted using a constant mean value for the Modulus of Elasticity of EPS. The results also indicate that an Isolation Efficiency of about 50% may be achieved by using an inclusion thickness of about 15% of the wall height. Due to the nonlinearity of the relation Ar – tr, further increase of the inclusion thickness has a minor effect on the isolation efficiency of the inclusion. Based on the results of all analyses a tentative procedure is proposed for the earthquake resistant design of earth retaining walls. According to the procedure, the wall is designed following the methodology of the Hellenic Seismic Code (2000) and using qw values twice as those indicated by the Code. The required thickness of the EPS inclusion, tr, is then selected from a diagram relating the tr value to the flexibility of the wall and the density of the inclusion.

This study presents information on the design procedure of seismic base isolation systems. Analysis of the seismic responses of isolated structures, which is oriented to give a clear understanding of the effect of base isolation on the nature of the structure / and discussion of various isolator types are involved in this work. Seismic isolation consists essentially of the installation of mechanisms, which decouple the structure, and its contents, from potentially damaging earthquake induced ground motions. This decoupling is achieved by increasing the horizontal flexibility of the system, together with providing appropriate damping. The isolator increases the natural period of the overall structure and hence decreases its acceleration response to earthquake-generated vibrations. This increase in period,together with damping, can reduce the effect of the earthquakes, so that smaller loads and deformations are imposed on the structure and its components. The key references that are used in this study are the related chapters of FEMA and IBC2000 codes for seismic isolated structures. In this work, these codes are used for the design examples of elastomeric bearings. Furthermore, the internal forces develop in the superstructure during a ground motion is determined / and the different approaches defined by the codes towards the &lsquo / scaling factor&rsquo / concept is compared in this perspective.

Στην παρούσα διατριβή παρουσιάζονται τα αποτελέσματα ψευδοδυναμικών δοκιμών σε γέφυρα από οπλισμένο σκυρόδεμα, πολλών ανοιγμάτων, σεισμικά μονωμένης με απλά ελαστομεταλλικά εφέδρανα χαμηλής απόσβεσης. Το μέγεθος της γέφυρας καθιστά αδύνατη την προσομοίωση ολόκληρου του φορέα στο εργαστήριο σε πλήρη κλίμακα ή έστω σε μικρότερη αλλά ρεαλιστική κλίμακα. Παράλληλα, η απόκριση του καταστρώματος και των βάθρων αναμένεται να είναι ελαστική κατά την διάρκεια της σεισμικής διέγερσης ενώ η ανελαστική παραμόρφωση θα εντοπίζεται στην στάθμη της σεισμικής μόνωσης. Για αυτό το λόγο, ο οικονομικότερος και πιο κατάλληλος τρόπος δοκιμής είναι η χρήση της μεθόδου των υπο-κατασκευών. Με τον τρόπο αυτό τα εφέδρανα χρησιμοποιούνται ως δοκίμιο και η απόκριση τους μετράται εργαστηριακά, ενώ η υπόλοιπη κατασκευή (κατάστρωμα και βάθρα) προσομοιώνονται αναλυτικά. Οι ψευδοδυναμικές δοκιμές έγιναν με την μέθοδο αυτή εφαρμόζοντας ως διέγερση το πραγματικό επιταχυνσιογράφημα του σεισμού της 15ης Απριλίου του Montenegro, τροποποιώντας το κατάλληλα, ώστε το φάσμα του να είναι συμβατό με το φάσμα του Ευρωκώδικα 8 για έδαφος τύπου C. Το τυπικό όμως πρόβλημα το οποίο εμφανίζεται κατά την εκτέλεση ψευδοδυναμικών δοκιμών μη πραγματικού χρόνου σε συσκευές, των οποίων η απόκριση επηρεάζεται από την ταχύτητα παραμόρφωσης, όπως είναι τα εφέδρανα, είναι η διαφοροποίηση των μετρούμενων δυνάμεων με την πραγματοποίηση της δοκιμής σε διεσταλμένη κλίμακα του χρόνου. Συνεπώς είναι απαραίτητο να χρησιμοποιηθεί μια διαδικασία, ώστε σε κάθε βήμα η μετρούμενη δύναμη αντίδρασης των εφεδράνων, η οποία εκφράζει την δυσκαμψία τους, να διορθώνεται ώστε να αντιστοιχεί στην δύναμη που θα μετριόταν εάν η δοκιμή ήταν πραγματικού χρόνου. Για τα λόγο αυτό πραγματοποιήθηκαν προκαταρκτικές δοκιμές χαρακτηρισμού, με στόχο αφενός τον προσδιορισμό των μηχανικών χαρακτηριστικών των εφεδράνων σε διάφορα επίπεδα παραμόρφωσης και αφετέρου τον υπολογισμό απαραίτητων συντελεστών διόρθωσης, οι οποίοι θα χρησιμοποιηθούν στην ψευδοδυναμική δοκιμή για να ληφθεί υπόψη η επιρροή του ρυθμού παραμόρφωσης. Οι δοκιμές αυτές πραγματοποιήθηκαν σε επίπεδα διατμητικής παραμόρφωσης των εφεδράνων που έφταναν το 100% της αντοχής τους και σε συχνότητες που ήταν κοντά στις ιδιοσυχνότητες που αναμένονται για την κατασκευή κατά την διάρκεια της σεισμικής διέγερσης. Κατά τη διεξαγωγή των δοκιμών τα εφέδρανα υποβάλλονται σε καθορισμένη ιστορία φόρτισης που αποτελείται από συνεχείς ημιτονοειδείς κύκλους μειούμενου εύρους και ένα τμήμα τυχαίας χρονοϊστορίας. Μετά τον προσδιορισμό των διορθωτικών συντελεστών πραγματοποιήθηκαν οι ψευδοδυναμικές δοκιμές σε διάφορα επίπεδα έντασης της εδαφικής σεισμικής επιτάχυνσης. Για τις δοκιμές χρησιμοποιήθηκαν δύο ζευγάρια εφεδράνων, για καθένα από τα οποία έγινε ξεχωριστή δοκιμή χαρακτηρισμού. Η ταχύτητα εκτέλεσης των δοκιμών επιλέχθηκε να είναι μια τάξη μεγέθους πιο γρήγορη από αντίστοιχες προηγούμενες δοκιμές. Τα αποτελέσματα των δοκιμών έδειξαν καταρχάς ότι η διαδικασία που επιλέχθηκε για να ληφθεί υπόψη η επιρροή του ρυθμού παραμόρφωσης ήταν επιτυχής. Επιπλέον, κατέδειξαν ότι η μόνωση γεφυρών με χρήση του συγκεκριμένου τύπου εφεδράνων δεν αποτελεί αποτελεσματική μέθοδο αντισεισμικής προστασίας καθώς τα εφέδρανα αστόχησαν σε επίπεδα παραμόρφωσης χαμηλότερα από αυτά που απαιτούν οι κανονισμοί. / The results of hybrid tests performed on a multi-span RC bridge are presented. The bridge, typical example of bridges employing only plain, elastomeric, low damping isolation devices, is sub-structured for testing purposes: the isolators are physically tested while the response of the remaining structure is simulated numerically. Hybrid testing is performed quasi-statically and - to account for the actual influence of real-time loading on the properties of the isolation devices - a pre-testing phase is carried out in which isolators are strained dynamically at different velocity levels to determine the relation of the real-time response to that during static conditions. Following this phase of characterization, pairs of isolators in a back-to-back (parallel) configuration are tested with the hybrid method, with on-line modification of the measured restoring forces based on the results of the pre-test campaign. The experimental program revealed that the specific type of elastomeric bearings used in the study do not comply to current code provisions as they rupture at deformation levels considerably lower than the code-prescribed ones.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第23490号 / 工博第4902号 / 新制||工||1766(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院工学研究科都市社会工学専攻 / (主査)教授 五十嵐 晃, 教授 高橋 良和, 准教授 北根 安雄 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

Elastic layers bonded to reinforcing sheets are widely used in many engineering applications, e.g., as elastic foundations to machinery, as seismic isolators to structures, etc. Because of its practical importance, the behavior of bonded elastic layers under some basic deformation modes (e.g., compression, bending and shear modes) has attracted the attention of many researchers. However, the analytical works available in literature involve, with the object of obtaining design formulas, many simplifying assumptions. In this dissertation, a new formulation is developed for the analysis of bonded elastic layers, which removes most of the assumptions used in the earlier formulations. Since the displacement boundary conditions are included in the formulation itself, there is no need to start the formulation with some assumptions on stress and/or displacement distributions or with some limitations on geometrical and/or material properties. For this reason, the solutions derived from this formulation are valid not only for &ldquo / thin&rdquo / layers of strictly/nearly incompressible materials but also for &ldquo / thick&rdquo / layers and/or compressible materials. The advanced solutions obtained within the framework of the new formulation are used to study the behavior of bonded elastic layers under basic deformation modes. The effects of three key parameters, shape factor, Poisson&rsquo / s ratio and reinforcement flexibility, on effective layer moduli, displacement/stress distributions, and location/magnitude of maximum stresses are investigated. It is shown that the stress assumptions of the &ldquo / pressure&rdquo / method are inconsistent with the results obtained for thick layers and/or compressible materials and/or flexible reinforcements, and that the assumption &ldquo / plane sections remain plane&rdquo / is not valid, in general.