Evaluation of shape factor effect on hysteresis behavior of elastomeric rubber bearings

Base isolation is an appropriate approach to mitigate the seismic hazards. A common type of elastomeric rubber bearing is included rubber pads, intermediate steel plates and steel end plates (anchor plates). The hysteresis behavior of elastomeric rubber bearings is affected by vertical pressure and shape factor. In this study cyclic loading is applied and hysteresis behavior in the first and second cycles is evaluated. Finite element method with ABAQUS software is used and validation analysis was done. The results show that second cycle of force-displacement in the elastomeric rubber bearings is more stable than the first cycle and vertical pressure and shape factor influenced damping and hysteresis behavior. Also, elastomeric rubber bearings with lower shape factor have higher damping in comparison with larger shape factor and increase in vertical load led to increase in the damping. The innovation of this paper is adopted various hysteresis parameters in finite element analysis to achieve closest results in comparison with experimental work.