SUMMARY The accuracy of a series spring model to predict the peak displacement and displacement history of Triple Pendulum™ (TP) bearings in a strongly shaken, full‐scale building is evaluated in this paper. The series spring model was implemented as a self‐contained three‐dimensional TP bearing element in OpenSees and is now available for general use. The TP bearing element contains the option for constant friction or a generalized friction model that accounts for the effect of instantaneous velocity and compression load on the friction coefficient. Comparison between numerical simulation and experimental data of a five‐story steel moment frame building shows that the peak displacement of isolation system can generally be predicted with confidence using a constant friction coefficient model. The friction coefficient model accounting for the effect of axial load and velocity leads to minor improvement over the constant friction coefficient models in some cases. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In this study, the multi-intensity seismic response of code-designed conventional and base-isolated steel frame buildings is evaluated using nonlinear response history analysis. The results of hazard and structural response analysis for three-story braced-frame buildings are presented in this paper. Three-dimensional models for both buildings are created and seismic response is assessed for three scenario earthquakes. The response history analysis results indicate that the design objectives are met and the performance of the isolated building is superior to the conventional building in the design event. For the Maximum Considered Earthquake, isolation leads to reductions in story drifts and floor accelerations relative to the conventional building. However, the extremely high displacement demands of the isolation system could not be accommodated under normal circumstances, and creative approaches should be developed to control displacements in the MCE.

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A 5-story steel moment frame building was tested at E-Defense in August of 2011 with three different support configurations: supported by a triple friction pendulum isolation system, supported by lead rubber bearings in combination with cross linear bearings, and in the fixed-base condition. Nonstructural components and contents were installed on the 4 th and 5 th floors. The isolated buildings were subjected to strong excitations with the goal to approach the displacement limit of the baseisolation devices. The triple friction pendulum system was subjected to a variety of large ground motions, but did not reach its displacement limit as the friction was observed to be larger than during initial bearing characterization. The lead-rubber isolators were subjected simultaneously to large displacements and some tension. Nonstructural component damage and content disruption due to strong vertical excitation was observed in both isolation systems and in the fixed-base configuration.