부산대학교 도서관

Finite element analysis of Rubber Ball Bearings (RBB) for seismic isolation system is performed. As has been proved by experimental studies, RBB is known to be well suited for base-isolator of light-weight structures, due to its large hysteretic damping together with its elastic recovery force. Using numerical simulation techniques, an attempt has been made to investigate design factors controlling the hysteretic damping and recovery force and also to compare with the experimental results. Finite element analysis indicates that the characteristics of the system strongly depends on the viscoelasticity of the RBB and the degree of compression. Due to its high correlation with experimental results, extensive usage of finite element methods is expected to grow to predict the performance of RBB in higher accuracies.