Masaki Hayatsu

Development of three-dimensional seismic isolation system realizing horizontal periodicity by air levitation

Research on seismic isolation technology was also a question of how much restoring force can be reduced. The seismic isolation rubber with thin film like rubber and metal plates stacked in multiple stages to reduce the restoring force has achieved great success. However, there still exists restoring power, measures against long-period earthquakes are not perfect and vertically unprotected. This research is an effort to make three-dimensional seismic isolation more realistic with higher performance by further minimizing resilience in all directions. The developed three-dimensional seismic isolation mechanism consists of an air levitation mechanism that isolates horizontal vibration and a spring link mechanism that isolates vertical vibration. Excitation experiments of the prototype were carried out using real-scale three-dimensional seismic waves by the E-defense shaking table. As a result, excellent characteristics of horizontal periodicity and vertical natural period of 5 s were confirmed. The vibration isolation performance at 1 Hz was about 20 dB in all three directions, and the high isolation performance not found in conventional equipment was verified. They were also supported by analytical models.