Dynamic Characteristics of Base-isolated Steel Frame Under Seismic Ground Motion

This paper presents the performance of base-isolated steel structures under the seismic load. The main goals of this study are to evaluate the effectiveness of base isolation systems for steel structures against earthquake loads; to verify the modal analysis of steel frame compared with the hand calculation results; and development of a simulating method for base-isolated structure's responses. Two models were considered in this study, one a steel structure with base-isolated and the other without base-isolated system. The nonlinear time-history analysis of both structures under El Centro 1940 seismic ground motion was used based on finite element method through SAP2000. The mentioned frames were analyzed by Eigenvalue method for linear analysis and Ritz-vector method for nonlinear analysis. Simulation results were presented as time-acceleration graphs for each story, period and frequency of both structures for the first three modes.