Effect of Elastomeric Snubber Properties on Seismic Response of Vibration-Isolated Mechanical Equipment: An Experimental Study

Earthquake-simulator experiments were conducted on a liquid centrifugal chiller supported by four isolation/restraint systems with built-in elastomeric snubbers. The test plan incorporated variations of input motion amplitudes and snubber properties to investigate their effect on three response quantities: peak dynamic forces induced into the snubbers, peak acceleration, and peak relative displacement response of the equipment. The elastomeric …