Base isolation system using shape memory alloy wires

Pseudoelastic shape memory alloys (SMAs) have origin-oriented restoring forces under a tensile-compressive loading/unloading and their restoring forces have the characteristic that they don't keep increasing as deformation increases and converge to a certain value. Using this characteristic, it is enable to restrain the transmission of force, i.e. acceleration, from the source of vibration. In this paper, we use SMA wires as softening springs and develop a base isolation system using them. The springs don't lose the origin-oriented characteristics and show good performance of softening springs. The base isolation effect of the system using SMA wires is investigated experimentally and we find that it is efficient to restrain acceleration transmission. Equivalent linear analysis is also carried out and the results correspond to experiment results. Furthermore, its durability is examined.