COMPRESSION AND BENDING STIFFNESS OF （压缩和弯曲刚度的）.pdfVIP

COMPRESSION AND BENDING STIFFNESS OF FIBER-REINFORCED ELASTOMERIC BEARINGS Hsiang-Chuan Tsai, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan James M. Kelly, University of California, Berkeley, CA Abstract The reinforcing elements of multi-layer elastomeric isolation bearings, which are normally steel plates, are replaced by a fiber reinforcement. The fiber-reinforced isolator is significantly lighter and could lead to a much less labor-intensive manufacturing process. In contrast to the steel reinforcement, which is assumed to be rigid, the fiber reinforcement is flexible in extension. This paper presents theoret- ical approach for analyzing the compressive stiffness and bending stiffness of fiber-reinforced isolators. The elastomer is assumed to be incompressible and pressure-dominant. Assuming that each elastomeric layer in the bearing deforms in such a way that the horizontal planes remain planar and points on a verti- cal line lie on parabola after loading, the closed-form solutions are derived for the compression and bend- ing stiffnesses of fiber-reinforced isolators having three types of geometry: infinitely long strip, rectangular and circular. The influence of fiber flexibility on the stiffness of isolators is studied. Introduction The bearings used in seismic isolation are heavy and expensive. The primary weight in an isolator is due to the reinforcing steel plates, which are used to provide vertical stiffness to the rubber-steel com- posite element. The high cost of producing the isolators results from the labor involved in preparing the steel plates and assembly of the rubber sheets and steel plates for vulcanization bonding in a mold. The research work r