Shaking Table Tests With Large Test Specimens of Seismically Isolated FBR Plants: Part 2—Damage Test of Reinforced Concrete Wall Structure

This paper describes the dynamic damage test of a reinforced concrete (RC) wall structure with seismic isolation sysytem. It has been expected that seismically isolated structures are damaged in sudden when the accelerations of the structures exceed a certain level by hardening of the rubber bearings. However, the response behavior and the damage mode have not been observed by experimental test yet. So, shaking table tests were carried out at “E-Defense”, equipping the world’s largest shaking table, located at Miki City, Hyogo prefecture, Japan. The specimen was composed of an upper structure of 600 ton by weight and six lead-rubber bearings (LRBs) of 505 mm in diameter which provide both stiffness and hysteretic damping. The upper structure consisted of a RC mass and four RC walls with counter weight. The RC wall structure was designed so that the damage of the RC wall occurred between the shear force at the hardening of the rubber bearings and that at their breaking. The dimensions of the RC wall were 1600 × 800 × 100 mm (B × H × t). The reinforcement ratios were 2.46% in vertical by D13 (deformed reinforcing bar, 13 mm in diameter) and 1.0% in horizontal by D10. The shaking table test was conducted consecutively by increasing the levels up to 225% of tentative design earthquake motion. Consequently, because of the increase of the structural response by the hardening of the rubber bearings, the damage of the wall structure with seismic isolation system suddenly happened. In addition, the preliminary finite element analysis simulated the test results fairly well, which were the restoring force characteristics, the crack patterns of the RC wall structure and such.