Vibration Attenuation by Periodic Foundations

Vibration attenuation to horizontal propagating waves by using periodic foundations is investigation. Periodic structure theory is introduced to design a new type of isolation foundations, which has a special frequency band gaps (or ‘attenuation zones’) that can barrier waves/vibrations propagation. Materials usually used in civil engineering are used to fabric periodic foundations with the unit cell of 1~2m, whose attenuation zones are obtained by investigating the dispersion relations based on the improved plane wave expansion method. Then, numerical simulation is conducted to verify the efficiency of the periodic foundation. Results show that periodic foundations have a great potential in future application in seismic isolation.