Tests for mechanical performance of thick rubber bearings

Traditional rubber bearings have a larger vertical stiffness to resist building gravity, but this stiffness may be coupled with building's vertical natural vibration period to cause harmful resonance effect. Here, to avoid damages of vertical earthquakes to important instruments and equipment in isolated buildings, the method of 3-D isolation using thick rubber bearings was proposed. Mechanical performance tests were conducted for thick rubber bearings. The test results showed that compared with traditional rubber bearings, thick rubber bearings have the basically same shear stiffness as that of the former and a smaller vertical stiffness, they can be used in 3-D seismic isolation for nuclear stations, bridges and subway stations; thick rubber bearings have a good large deformation performance, creep one, anti-fatigue capacity and anti-aging one; aiming at thick rubber bearings' sensitivity to axial compression, an integral correction method is proposed considering variations of rubber layer's compressive module, area and thickness, the corrected values agree better with the test results. © 2019, Editorial Office of Journal of Vibration and Shock. All right reserved.