Test of Thick Rubber Bearings on its Compressive Properties

Abstract

Vibration is an important comfort issue for the metro surrounding buildings. Among the many methods of subway vibration control, building isolation is the necessary supplement to the track isolation for metro surrounding buildings with sensitive constructive forms or specific comfort needs. Laminated rubber bearings are widely used for the building isolation. In order to further improve the isolation effectiveness, researchers intend to use laminated rubber bearings with relatively thick rubber layers. However, the frequency dependency and temperature dependency are not well explored for the thick rubber bearings. And since constrains from the steel plates to rubber layers are relatively small for thick rubber bearings, its not clear if it is accurate to simply apply the equations for common laminated rubber bearings to the thick ones. In this paper, a compressive properties test is carried out for both thick and thin rubber bearings. Both thick and thin rubber bearings are manufactured by a kind of High Damping Rubber (HDR) and a kind of Nature Rubber (NR). The frequency dependency and temperature dependency are tested. The accuracy of applying the current design equations to thick rubber bearings is discussed based on the test results.