Effect of Friction on Unbonded Elastomeric Bearings

This paper describes a theoretical analysis of a type of thermal expansion bridge bearing which could be used as a lightweight low-cost elastomeric seismic isolator for application to housing, schools, and other public buildings in earthquake-prone areas of the developing world. The analysis covers the effect of the frictional resistance of the supports on the vertical stiffness of this type of isolator. The most important aspect of these bearings is that they do not have end plates, which reduces their weight, but also means that they are not bonded to the upper and lower support surfaces and are held in place only by friction. This at first sight might seem to be a deficiency of this design, but it has the advantage that it eliminates the presence of tensile stresses in the bearings. It is these tensile stresses and the bonding requirements that arise from them that lead to the high costs of conventional isolation bearings. A theoretical analysis of the response of these bearings to vertical load shows that slip between the unbonded surfaces and rigid supports above and below can have a significant influence on the vertical stiffness and the internal pressure distribution.