Effects of Thermal Aging of Natural Rubber Bearing on Seismic Performance of Bridges

Abstract

The dynamic characteristics of natural rubber bearings, which are used as isolator, are dependent on the main rubber's dynamic behaviors and nonlinear properties. Rubber materials tend to undergo an aging process under the influence of mechanical or environmental factors, so they inevitably end up facing damage. A main cause of aging like this is known to be oxidization, which occurs through the heat of reaction at high temperatures. Accordingly, in this study an accelerated thermal aging test was carried out in order to compare the characteristic values of the bearings before and after thermal aging occurs. As a result of this experiment, it was found that a thermal aging phenomenon could have some effects on shear stiffness, energy absorption, and equivalent damping coefficients of the bearings. Furthermore, a deterioration in the dynamic properties of the natural rubber bearings caused by the thermal aging was applied to an actual bridge and then the effects of such thermal aging on the seismic performance of the bridge were also compared and analyzed based on numerical analysis. As a result of this analysis, it was found that the changes in the basic properties of the natural rubber bearings caused by the thermal aging bring only a minor effect on the seismic performance of bridges.