A Comparative Study on the Seismic Performance of Superelastic-Friction Base Isolators against Near-Field Earthquakes

This paper presents a comparative seismic performance assessment of superelastic-friction base isolator (S-FBI) systems in improving the response of bridges under near-field earthquakes. The S-FBI system consists of a steel-Teflon sliding bearing and a superelastic shape memory alloy (SMA) device. The other isolation systems considered here are lead rubber bearing (LRB), friction pendulum system (FPS), and resilient-friction base isolator (R-FBI). Each isolation system is designed to provide the same isolation period and characteristic strength. Nonlinear time-history analyses of an isolated bridge are performed to compare the performance of various isolation systems. The results indicate that the S-FBI system shows superior performance in reducing deck displacement response and effectively limits permanent bearing deformation, whereas residual deformations are present for the other isolation systems in some cases. It is also observed that the LRB system has the largest deck drifts while the FPS system and R-FBI system produce the smallest peak deck acceleration and base shear. [DOI: 10.1193/ 1.4000070]