The impact of a PEER funded research project "Effects of Reinforcement Characteristics on the Response and Stability of Elastomeric Isolation Systems" is highlighted below. The project Principal Investigator (PI) is Dimitrios Konstantinidis, Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley. The Research Team includes Eduardo Montalto, Graduate Student Researcher, University of California, Berkeley.
Download the Research Project Highlight which includes the abstract (PDF)
Research Impact
The outcomes of this research are expected to significantly influence engineering practice, enhancing both design and analysis procedures. The analytical formulations developed for predicting the coupled lateral-vertical response will be used in preliminary design to more accurately estimate isolation displacements. Additionally, the analytical formulation to estimate the instability limit state will play a crucial role in assessing isolator stability, a key design consideration for these devices, both at preliminary and final design stages. The numerical model, once implemented in OpenSees, will facilitate more accurate response history analyses, particularly when axial load effects in the isolators are expected to be significant. Moreover, design recommendations for steel shims will allow their design to account for their response under large compressive loads at large lateral deformations, which is currently neglected in practice due to the lack of design criteria. The PI’s role on ASCE 7’s Seismic Subcommittee and Task Committee on Seismic Isolation will enable a pathway for integrating this study’s recommendations into practice.
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