Seismic performance of two-storey RC frame with and without special base isolation under in-plane quasi-static lateral cyclic loading / Ili Farhana Azmi

The 2015 Ranau Earthquake caused severe damages to the RC building which was designed and constructed using British Standard (BS8110) known as a non-seismic code of practice. This study assesses the seismic performance of RC frame with and without special base isolation designed using BS 8110. Four special base isolations designed for the low-rise building were delivered to Heavy Structural Laboratory, UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. The special base isolation was installed on the strong floor and bolted together using the highly treaded rod. The special base isolation acts as the energy absorber that can absorb the earthquake energy by isolating the building from the ground motion. The RC frame was designed, constructed, and tested under in-plane quasi-static lateral cyclic loading. After the construction of RC frame with special base isolation was tested in laboratory was completed, four number of base isolations were removed from the strong floor and replaced with I steel beam. The foundation beam of the RC frame without special base isolation was bolted to the strong floor using a highly treaded rod. The seismic response was compared between RC frame with and without special base isolation in order to establish the effectiveness of the special base isolation as energy dissipators in RC frame which designed using a non-seismic code of practice. Subsequently, the structural response of the two-story RC frame was assessed under six past earthquake records using the Ruaumoko 2D and Dynaplot Program. These earthquakes are the 2015 Ranau Earthquake, the 1971 Pacoima Dam Earthquake, the 1985 Mexico City Earthquake, the 1995 Kobe Earthquake, the 1940 El-Centro North-South and the 1940 EL-Centro East-West Earthquake.