FINITE ELEMENT MODELING OF THE ROLLING BEHAVIOR OF A POLYURETHANE SPHERE FOR LOW-COST SEISMIC ISOLATION APPLICATIONS

This paper presents the experimental test and finite element modeling of the rolling behavior of a very hard (95 Shore A) polyurethane elastomeric sphere that can be used to construct low-cost seismic isolation systems. A small-amplitude rolling test was performed at the component level on a polyurethane sphere to validate the finite element simulations. The considered material model parameters were based on those presented by the authors in a …