Mechanical models for shear behavior in high damping rubber bearings

High damping rubber bearings have been in use for seismic isolation of buildings worldwide for almost 30 years now. In the present work, a brief introduction to the process leading to their manufacturing is first given. Next, a series of novel 1D mechanical models for high damping rubber bearings is proposed, based on the combination of simple and well-known rheological models. These models are calibrated against a set of harmonic tests at strain amplitudes up to 200%. Extension of the models to bidirectional horizontal motion and to time-varying vertical loads is the subject of ongoing work. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.