Elastomeric seismic-protection isolators for buildings and bridges

A giant earthquake of magnitude 9.0 occurred in Pacific Ocean off of Tohoku District Japan on March 11, 2011. The highest seismic intensity of 7 in JMA scale was recorded in Miyagi. In the Tohoku district, around 230 buildings are seismically isolated (hereafter, SI) mainly by elastomeric isolators (seismic rubber bearings). According to the official survey reports by several organizations (for example[1]), the records of those buildings have verified the effectiveness of the seismic isolation. The response acceleration of the SI buildings was reduced by 30% to 50% of the input ground acceleration. Additionally, the difference of the conditions inside the room between SI and the fixed-base buildings was obvious as well as the damage in main structures of the buildings. The displacements of the isolators by the earthquake were around 200 mm according to the records of the instruments. As a result, the performance of SI buildings and the elastomeric isolators in the Tohoku District — Off the Pacific Ocean Earthquake 2011 were excellent, and the efficiency of the seismic isolation was verified by the records of many buildings in wide area.