Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 57 (2014) 143151

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Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/soildyn

Seismic isolation foundations with effective attenuation zones

Zhifei Shi n, Zhibao Cheng, Hongjun Xiang
School of Civil Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, PR China

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 12 August 2013
Received in revised form
20 November 2013
Accepted 22 November 2013
Available online 14 December 2013

In this paper, a new conguration of seismic isolation foundation containing several concrete layers and
some rubber blocks is proposed. The concrete layers and the rubber blocks are placed periodically to
form a periodic foundation. To study the isolation ability of this new conguration of periodic foundation,
an equivalent analytical model is established. For practical applications, two very useful formulas are
obtained. Using these formulas, the low bound frequency and the width of the rst attenuation zone can
be directly approximated without the calculation of dispersion structure. This new conguration of
seismic isolation foundation enjoys the rst attenuation zone between 2.15 Hz and 15.01 Hz, which
means that the components of seismic waves with frequencies from 2.15 Hz to 15.01 Hz cannot
propagate upward in the foundation. To illustrate the efciency of this seismic isolation foundation,
the seismic responses of a 6-story frame with three different foundations are simulated. Numerical
simulations show that the seismic responses of the structure with the periodic foundation are greatly
attenuated as compared with those of the structure with no isolation base or with traditional rubber
bearings.
& 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Band of frequency gap
Attenuation zones
Periodic foundation
Seismic isolation

1. Introduction
Base isolation is an effective way to improve structural seismic
response and reduce damages that may be caused by earthquakes.
In the past several decades, a number of important achievements
relating to base isolation have been achieved. Kelly conducted
theoretical and experimental work with ber-reinforced bearings
as elastomeric isolators aimed at addressing the shortcomings of
conventional isolators [1]. Tsai and Kelly analyzed the buckling
load of isolators by solving a cubic equation established using
beam theory [2]. Jangid and Datta studied the response of a
torsionally coupled base isolated building for two-component
random ground motions [3,4]. Kikuchi et al. [5] and Yamamoto
et al. [6] studied the response of yielding in seismically isolated
structures suggesting that ductility in a seismically isolated structure should be limited contrary to current seismic design philosophies. Warn and his co-workers conducted both experimental
and numerical investigations on the critical load capacities of
elastomeric and lead-rubber seismic isolation bearings [7,8].
In addition, Warn and Whittaker also investigated the inuence
of vertical earthquake excitation on the response of a bridge
isolated with low-damping rubber and lead-rubber bearings
through earthquake simulation testing [9].

Corresponding author. Tel.: 86 10 51688367.

E-mail address: zfshi178@bjtu.edu.cn (Z. Shi).

0267-7261/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2013.11.009

By developing the resettable variable stiffness damper and the

variable friction damper as well as the leverage-type stiffness
controllable damper, Lu et al. studied the performances of the
semi-active isolation systems equipped with different dampers
[1012]. The simulated results demonstrated that the sliding
isolation system equipped with the resettable variable stiffness
damper was able to attenuate the low-frequency resonance
behavior of the seismic isolation system induced by long-period
ground motions [10]. In order to overcome the limitation of the
traditional friction pendulum isolators, Krishnamoorthy developed
a variable curvature pendulum isolator and a variable friction
pendulum isolator, and studied the effectiveness of these isolation
systems through a three-span continuous bridge [13,14]. Replacing
the conventional columns by seismic isolation columns, Ribakov
and his co-workers developed a hybrid seismic isolation system
for protection of structures against near fault earthquakes [1517].
In order to limit the displacements in the isolating columns,
variable friction dampers were added. By mixing shredded rubber
tire particles with soil materials and placing the mixtures around
building foundations, Tsang et al. proposed a potential seismic
isolation method for the protection of low-to-medium-rise buildings [18,19]. Considering the dynamic interaction between soil and
structure, Spyrakos et al. investigated the seismic responses of
base-isolated structures by formulating the equations of motion in
the frequency domain and assuming frequency-independent soil
stiffness and damping constants [20,21]. Based on nonlinear
regression analysis, Ryan et al. developed the equations to estimate the lateral force distribution in the superstructure and

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Z. Shi et al. / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 57 (2014) 143151

evaluated an alternative normalized strength characterization against

the equivalent linear characterization [2224]. Their works for evaluation include the ability to effectively account for variations in ground
motion intensity and the ability to effectively describe the energy
dissipation capacity of the isolation system [24].
Aforementioned seismic isolation systems include elastomeric
bearings, frictional/sliding bearings, roller bearings and so on. The
mechanisms of these traditional base isolation systems can be
ascribed to two points. One is to shift the fundamental frequency
of a structure away from the dominant frequencies of earthquake
ground motion and fundamental frequency of the xed base superstructure. Another is to add some preliminary elements to undergo
energy dissipation. Different from the above traditional base isolation
methods, the method discussed in the present paper is the so-called
periodic foundations which are studied in the frequency domain.
Periodic foundations have a special dynamic property, named
attenuation zones in which waves/vibrations are blocked. It is hoped
that the frequency attenuation zone can cover the main frequency
region of the seismic vibration and the characteristic frequency of the
superstructure. Therefore, it can reduce the seismic energy input and
decrease the seismic response of superstructure. Both numerical and
experimental investigations show that periodic structures made of
common construction materials can greatly reduce the responses of
isolated structures [2530].
The content of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2,
the background as well as the aims and the scope of this paper are
presented. The governing equation for shear waves in an innite
layered periodic structure is given in Section 3. The dispersion
equation is obtained and two very useful formulas to approximate
the low bound frequency and the width of the rst attenuation
zone are found. A new conguration of layered periodic structures
containing several concrete layers and some rubber blocks is
proposed and the analytical model is established in Section 4.
In Section 5, the seismic responses of a 6-story frame with three
different foundations are simulated in order to illustrate the
efciency of this isolation foundation. The present numerical
simulations show that the periodic foundation can greatly attenuate the seismic responses of the structure compared with the one
with traditional rubber bearings, which indicates that the new
conguration of layered periodic structures has a bright future in
engineering applications. In addition, detailed discussions about
the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed conguration
are presented at the end of Section 5. Finally, some conclusions are
given in Section 6.

2. Aims and scope

Recently, investigations in the eld of solid-state physics have
shown that phononic crystals, one kind of periodic materials or
periodic structures, enjoy bands of frequency gaps. If the excitation
frequencies fall within the range of the gaps, waves cannot
propagate in or through the material. This kind of periodic
materials has found wide applications in engineering such as
frequency lter, noise control, structure isolation, vibration
attenuation and so on. Enlightened by the concept of frequency
gap existing in phononic crystals, a novel isolation system called
periodic foundation was proposed to attenuate seismic waves [25].
Theoretically speaking, periodic foundations can prevent seismic
waves coming from all directions if the foundations have periodicity
in three dimensions. However, the present paper concentrates on the
layered periodic foundations with periodicity only in the vertical
direction.
Similar to the property of phononic crystal, different kinds of
periodic foundations can be developed according to the periodicity of
foundations. In our previous works, foundations with periodicity in

one dimension [2628], two dimensions [25,29] and three dimensions [30] have been proposed and the feasibility study on seismic
isolation of these foundations has been conducted. Different from
phononic crystal structures considered in the solid-state-physics, the
aforementioned periodic foundations are made of common construction materials such as concrete, rubber, steel and so on. In addition,
the size of periodic foundations is much larger than that considered
in the solid-state-physics.
Focused on the layered periodic foundation, previous investigations on the dynamic property of the attenuation zone were
conducted. Based on the theoretical analysis and numerical
simulation, Xiang et al. studied the feasibility of the layered
periodic foundation composited of concrete layers and rubber
layers [26]. In the work [27,28], a layered periodic foundation was
fabricated and shake table tests were performed, in which great
attenuations were found when the exciting frequencies fell into
the band of frequency gaps.
Though it is demonstrated that layered periodic foundations
can greatly reduce seismic responses of isolated structures, further
investigations should be conducted to make periodic foundations
more applicable in civil engineering. First, originated in the solidstate-physics, it is a hard work for civil engineers to understand
the periodic theory, and it wastes a lot of time in determining the
region of attenuation zones of periodic foundations. Hence, it is
essential to nd a simple formula to determine the rst attenuation zone, which is one of the major aims of this paper. Given that
earthquake is one kind of low-frequency broadband stochastic
vibrations, periodic foundations should be designed with low and
wide attenuation zones in order to effectively isolate the superstructure from the seismic energy. The second objective of this
paper is to develop a new conguration of layered periodic
structures in order to produce lower and wider attenuation zones.
The present investigation shows that lower and wider attenuation
zones could be obtained by replacing rubber layers in the layered
periodic foundations [2628] by rubber blocks. In addition, seismic
records with the main frequency falling in the attenuation zones
were chosen in our previous studies. In order to consider different
site conditions, more seismic records are used to verify the
efciency of the new conguration of layered periodic structures
proposed in the present paper.

3. Basic theory
3.1. Dispersion structure
An innite layered periodic structure as shown in Fig. 1 is
considered. Material A and material B are arranged alternatively to
form this kind of periodic structure. Due to periodicity, a typical
cell as shown in Fig. 1 can be drawn to study the property of this
periodic structure. The thickness of every layer of material A and
material B is denoted by hA and hB, respectively. Therefore, the
thickness of the typical cell is H hA hB .
Let uz; t be the component of displacement in the x direction.
Under the assumption of continuous, isotropic, perfectly elastic
and small deformation as well as without consideration of damping, the governing equation for shear wave (Sx) can be given as:
G

2 u
2 u
2
z2
t

where G is the shear modulus and

solution of Eq. (1) is assumed as:
uz; t Uzeit

is the mass density. The

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Z. Shi et al. / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 57 (2014) 143151

oA

Material A
Material B

oB

hA

xA

zB

hB

xB

To nd the non-trivial solution of Eq. (6), the determinant of

the matrix of coefcients must vanish, which results in the
dispersion equation. By scanning the wave number along the
rst Billouin zone, the dispersion relationship can be
obtained. The dispersion equation can be given in the following
form:










hA
hB

hA
hB
cos
 0:5 A B sin
sin
cos kH cos
cA
cB
cA
cB
B A
7

Sx wave
Fig. 1. Schematic of a layered periodic structure.

where is the angular frequency and U(z) is the steady-state

displacement component. Furthermore, the steady-state displacement component and shear stress component can be expressed as:
Uz sin z=c cos z=c

3a

z sin z=c  cos z=c

3b

Usually, the wave number k a ib is a complex number and

represents the wave model. The symbols a and b represent the
phase constant and the attenuation constant, respectively. If b 0,
the corresponding wave can propagate in the periodic structure
without any attenuation, which corresponds to the pass band.
If a n =H n 1; 2; and b a0, the corresponding wave is
evanescent and cannot pass through the periodic structure, which
is the so-called stop band in the eld of solid-state physics. In the
following discussion, the terms stop band and band of frequency
gap will be replaced by another term attenuation zone in order to
be easily understood by many civil engineering readers.
3.2. Attenuation zones

p
where and are constants to be determined, c G= is the
shear wave velocity and G=c is a wave impedance parameter.
In the local coordinate system, Eq. (3a) and (3b) is valid for
every layer of the periodic structure. To express the displacement
eld in detail, four unknown constants (A , B , A , B ) should be
introduced, which can be determined after considering the
boundary conditions at the interfaces.
Assuming that the layers are bonded perfectly at the interfaces,
the inner boundary conditions for the typical cell can be given as:

B hB A 0

where 1=c.

U B hB U A 0;

A
6
7
6A 7
6
7
6 B 7 0
4
5
B
Typical cell

zA

145

From the view of potential application, the layered periodic

structure made of common construction materials such as concrete and rubber is considered. The material parameters are given
in Table 1. Taking the thicknesses of concrete layer as hA 0:2 m,
Fig. 2 presents the dispersion structure of innite layered periodic

Table 1
Material parameters.
Materials

Young's modulus E (Pa)

Poisson ratio

Density (kg/m3)

Concrete
Rubber

2.50E 10
1.37E 05

0.2
0.463

2300
1300

Here, for the considered unit cell as shown in Fig. 1, U B hB and

B hB are the displacement and shear stress at the top interface of

material B, respectively; similarly, U A 0 and A 0 are the displacement and shear stress at the bottom interface of material A,
respectively.
According to the BlochFloquet theory, the periodic boundary
conditions of the typical cell can be given as:

B 0eikH A hA

where k is the wave number. U B 0 and B 0 are the displacement

and shear stress at the bottom interface of material B, respectively;
U A hA and A hA are the displacement and shear stress at the top
interface of material A, respectively.
Substituting Eqs. (4) and (5) into Eq. (3a) and (3b), the
following set of four homogeneous equations are obtained:
2

sin A hA
6
6 A cos A hA
6
60
4
A eikH

cos A hA
 A sin A hA
eikH
0

0
 B
 sin B hB

 B cos B hB

3
1
7
0
7
7
 cos B hB 7
5

B sin B hB

hB=0.1m
hB=0.2m

-6
Attenuation constant

U B 0eikH U A hA ;

-7

hB=0.25m

-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
0

10
15
Frequency(Hz)

20

25

Fig. 2. Dispersion structure of layered periodic structures with hA 0.2 m.

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Z. Shi et al. / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 57 (2014) 143151

and S is the ratio of the thickness of the two different layers. The
parameter denotes the material mismatch. The dispersion
equation Eq. (7) can then be simplied as:

structures with three different thicknesses of rubber layer.

Obviously, the attenuation zones are located in low frequency
region (o 25 Hz), which corresponds well with the main frequency region of engineering vibration.
To block seismic waves or vibrations effectively, a wider rst
attenuation zone and lower bound frequency of the rst attenuation zone are always desired. Therefore, the lower bound of the
rst attenuation zone (LBFAZ) and the width of the rst attenuation zone (WFAZ) are two very important parameters of a periodic
structure. In addition, an explicit formula for calculating LBFAZ
(WFAZ) is very useful for researchers and engineers. To nd these
formulae, the following parameters are introduced:
f
fo

inp ;

finp

;
2

fo 0:5

cB
;
hB

hA
;
hB

A
;
B

cos kH  cos  sin

where is a relative parameter of frequency.

Given that the rst attenuation zone is produced by
cos kH  1, the relative LBFAZ can be obtained by the rst root
of Eq. (9). Sackman et al. [31] gave two approximations for the
relative LBFAZ (i.e., L ):
(

0:5 S
8

1  2 for a small
p
2=
for a large

10

It can be examined that the above approximation is valid for a

large . However, it is not exact for a medium or a small . On the
other hand, intermediate values of must be involved in practical
design for a lter [31]. Besides, Eq. (10) is applicable only for
qualitative analysis, it is not suitable for practical design. To get a
better approximation, Eq. (10) is modied by a piecewise function
as follows:

where finp is the frequency of an input wave, fo is the natural

frequency of a layer of material B, is the ratio of material density
WFAZ
LBFAZ
Cheng( = 0.88) [28]
Sackman( =1.11)[31]
Cao( = 3.34)[32]
Present model ( = 9.83)

8
3
>
>
<  2 3 
L  1:087 lg 1:36
>
p
>
: 2=

r 0:04

0:04 o o 4

11

Z 4

The curves of Eq. (11) are shown in Fig. 3. It can be found that
the relative LBFAZ ( L ) tends to lower with the increase of the
material mismatch, especially for 44.
Similarly, the upper bound of the rst attenuation zone
(UBFAZ) corresponds to the case U . In this case, the frequency
of the input wave should be equal to the natural frequency of a
layer of material B. Thus, the WFAZ can be given as:

0
10-4

10-3

10-2

10-1

100

101

102

103

8
3
>
>
< 2 3 
1:087 lg  1:36
>
p
>
:  2=

104

Fig. 3. Approximation for the LBFAZ and WFAZ.

Rubber block

hB

r0:04

0:04 o o 4
Z4

12

For comparison purposes, four models including the model

given later in the present paper are used to examine the correctness of the approximation equations [32], which are plotted in
Fig. 3. It is clear that the LBFAZ and WFAZ can be obtained
precisely.
Eqs. (11) and (12) are very useful in practical engineering because
the LBFAZ and WFAZ of a layered periodic structure can be obtained
directly without the calculation of the dispersion structure. Once a
typical cell is given (i.e., the parameter is given), the LBFAZ and
WFAZ can easily be found. Inversely, the material properties and the
thicknesses of the layers can be optimized in order to effectively
block waves with certain frequencies ( ).

hA

Concrete layer

Relative frequency parameter ( )

Fig. 4. Schematic of a new conguration of periodic foundation.

z
z

x
Typical cell

x
Equivalent layered cell
Fig. 5. Analytical models.

2N
x
Equivalent mass-spring cell

Z. Shi et al. / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 57 (2014) 143151

4. A new conguration of seismic isolation foundation

and its equivalent analytical models
As a kind of random vibrations, seismic waves usually transmit
a large amount of energy by its low frequency components.
Therefore, to block seismic waves effectively, the periodic foundation should be designed with a lower LBFAZ and a wider WFAZ
simultaneously. The LBFAZ below 2 Hz or 3 Hz is always longed for.
To meet this requirement, a new conguration of seismic isolation
foundation is proposed in this section based on the equivalent
analytical models.
In order to design a periodic foundation with a lower LBFAZ
and a wider WFAZ, engineering materials or congurations with
big relative ratios for density and shear modulus should be
considered. In the present paper, a new conguration of seismic
isolation foundation containing several concrete layers and some
rubber blocks is proposed as shown in Fig. 4. The sizes of the
concrete layer and the rubber block are L  L  hA and l  l  hB ,
respectively. The concrete layers and the rubber blocks are placed
periodically to form a periodic foundation. Due to symmetry, a
typical cell as shown in Fig. 5(a) is chosen in the following analysis

LBFAZ
UBFAZ
WFAZ

60

and the Sx wave is considered only in this present paper. To study

the dispersion properties of this new periodic foundation, the
rubber block layer is treated as a continuous material layer based
on the equivalent principle, which results in a layered typical cell
as shown in Fig. 5(b). The reasonability of this equivalent layered
model can be veried by comparing the dispersion structure of
this new conguration of periodic foundation with that based on
the mass-spring model, which can be found in Appendix A.
The shear modulus G and the mass density of the equivalent
continuous material layer can be determined as follows:
(
L2 l2
13
2
GL2 Gl
Here, means to sum up all rubber blocks in a rubber layer.
Eq. (13) means that both the mass and the shear stiffness of the
equivalent continuous material layer are equivalent to those of the
rubber block layers.
Taking the thickness of the concrete layer as 0.2 m, Fig. 6 gives
the rst attenuation zone versus the thickness of the rubber
blocks. It is found that the LBFAZ and the UBFAZ decrease rapidly
with the increase of the thickness of the rubber blocks.

5. Vibration attenuation simulations

50

Frequency (Hz)

147

5.1. Models and inputs

40

30

20

10

0
0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25

0.30

Thickness of the rubber block (m)

Fig. 6. The rst attenuation zone versus the thickness of the rubber block as taking
hA 0.2 m.

For comparison purposes, a 6-story frame with three different

foundations as shown in Fig. 7 is considered. One is with no
isolation foundation, i.e., the upper structure is xed on the
ground. Another is with traditional rubber bearings (rubber
bearings provided between the upper structure and the base).
And the third one is with a periodic isolation foundation. Our
simulations are conducted by using the commercial software
ANSYS 10.0. The size of the upper structure is 9 m  9 m  3.3 m.
The rectangular cross sections of the concrete columns and the
beams of the frame are 0.5 m  0.5 m and 0.5 m  0.3 m, respectively. Beams and columns are simulated by using the element
BEAM188. The oor thickness is 0.1 m. Floors are modeled by the
element Shell63. By performing the model analysis, the rst four
characteristic frequencies of the upper structure with no isolation
foundation can easily be found as 1.739 Hz, 5.537 Hz, 10.181 Hz,
and 15.38 Hz.

Rubber

z
x

bearings
x

Periodic

foundation
x

Fig. 7. A 6-story frame with three different foundations. (a) No isolation, (b) rubber bearing isolation and (c) periodic foundation isolation.

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Z. Shi et al. / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 57 (2014) 143151

Table 2
Earthquake acceleration records [34].
Site type

Earthquake (record place)

Magnitude (time)

Acceleration peak (gal)

Hard site
Medium site
Soft site

Anza (Anza Fire Station)

Imperial Valley (Superstition Mtn Camera)
Loma Prieta (Alameda Naval Air Stn Hanger)

4.7 (1980.02.25)
7.3 (1999.11.12)
7.1 (1989.10.18)

64.764
108.891
261.908

100

Anza Fire Station

Fourier amplitude (gal)

Anza Fire Station

Acceleration(gal)

50

-50

0
-100
0

10

12

Time(s)

10

15

20

25

Frequency (Hz)

5
Superstition Mtn Camera

200
Superstition Mtn Camera

Fourier amplitude (gal)

Acceleration(gal)

4
100

-100

3
2
1
0

-200
0

10

15

20

25

30

10

Time(s)

15

20

25

Time(s)

10
Alameda Naval Air Stn Hanger

200

Alameda Naval Air Stn Hanger

Fourier amplitude (gal)

Acceleration (gal)

8
100
0
-100

6
4
2

-200
0
-300
0

10

15

20

25

30

Time(s)

10

15

20

25

Frequency(Hz)

Fig. 8. Acceleration records and Fourier spectra of three seismic waves: (a) Anza, (b) Imperial Valley and (c) Loma Prieta.

For the traditional rubber bearings, the type GZP500-V6A is

adopted in the present simulation. The bearings are added at
the bottom of each column and total nine bearings are used.
The height and the horizontal stiffness of each GZP-500-V6A [33]
is 194 mm and 1.22 kN/mm, respectively. To simplify the analysis,
in numerical simulation, rubber bearings are replaced by concrete
columns with the same height based on the equivalence of
horizontal stiffness. The rst four characteristic frequencies of

the structure with traditional rubber bearings are 0.7859 Hz,

3.281 Hz, 6.732 Hz, and 10.351 Hz.
The periodic foundation contains three unit cells. The periodic
constant is taken as H0.4 m. The unit cell consists of a concrete
layer and nine rubber blocks as shown in Fig. 5(a). The sizes of the
concrete layer and the rubber block are 10 m  10 m  0.2 m and
1 m  1 m  0.2 m, respectively. Both the concrete layers and the
rubber blocks are simulated by using the element SOLID45. Concrete

Z. Shi et al. / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 57 (2014) 143151

No isolation
Rubber bearing isolation
Periodic foundation isolation

No isolation
Rubber bearing isolation
Periodic foundation isolation

102
Fourier amplitude (gal)

Acceleration response (gal)

300

150

-150

101
100
10-1
10-2
10-3
10-4

-300
0

10

103

No isolaiton
Rubber bearing isolation
Periodic foundation isolation

600

15

20

25

No isolation
Rubber bearing isolation
Periodic foundation isolation

10
Fourier amplitude (gal)

Acceleartion response (gal)

900

10

Frequency(Hz)

Time (s)

300
0
-300
-600

101
100
10-1
10-2
10-3
10-4

-900
0

10

15

20

25

30

1500

103

No isolation
Rubber bearing isolation
Periodic foundation isolation

15

20

25

No isolation
Rubber bearing isolation
Periodic foundation isolation

102
Fourier amplitude (gal)

1000

10

Frequency (Hz)

Time (s)

Acceleartion response (gal)

149

500
0
-500
-1000

101
100
10-1
10-2
10-3
10-4

-1500
0

10

15

20

25

30

Time (s)

10

15

20

25

Frequency(Hz)

Fig. 9. Acceleration in the x direction of node A and their Fourier spectra when the frame is under different seismic inputs: (a) Anza, (b) Imperial Valley and (c) Loma Prieta.

layers and rubber blocks are bonded together perfectly using the
VGLUE command. To x the frame on the foundation, the element
BEAM188 and the element SOLID45 are connected by using a set of
constraint equations. The rst attenuation zone of the periodic
foundation can be found between 2.15 Hz and 15.01 Hz.
In addition, three ground motions as shown in Table 2 are
considered in the present simulations, i.e., Anza 1980 (Anza Fire
Station), Imperial Valley 1999 (Superstition Mtn Camera) and
Loma Prieta 1989 (Alameda Naval Air Stn Hanger). All the ground
motions can be obtained from the PEER Ground Database [34]. The
selected seismic waves correspond to three different types of soil
site conditions, i.e., hard site, medium site and soft site. The
acceleration records of these three seismic waves and their Fourier
spectra are shown in Fig. 8.
5.2. Results and discussions
In numerical simulation, the acceleration records are applied to
all the nodes in the x direction on the bottom of the structure by

using the Big-Mass method. The corresponding acceleration

responses in the x direction of node A of the frame are drawn in
Fig. 9. Obviously, responses for the system with periodic foundation are much lower than those for other cases. Fig. 10 gives the
maximum relative displacement in the x direction of upper
structure with different isolation bases under the above seismic
waves. It can be seen that the seismic responses of the structure
with the periodic foundation are greatly attenuated as compared
with those of the structure with no isolation base or with
traditional rubber bearings.
To show the ltering effect of the periodic foundation clearly,
the Fourier spectra of the acceleration responses of node A are also
given in Fig. 9. The gray shadow part shows the rst attenuation
zone of the periodic foundation. It is obvious that the second and
the third characteristic frequencies of the structure with no
isolation base are located in the rst attenuation zone of the
periodic foundation. The second, third and fourth characteristic
frequencies of the structure with traditional rubber bearings are
also located in the rst attenuation zone of the periodic

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Z. Shi et al. / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 57 (2014) 143151

No isolation
Rubber bearing isolation
Periodic foundation isolation

1
0

No isolation
Rubber bearing isolation
Periodic foundation isolation

Floor

Floor

10

Maximum relative displacement (mm)

Maximum relative displacement (mm)

No isolation
Rubber bearing isolation
Periodic foundation isolation

Floor

5
4
3
2
1
0

10

20

30

Maximum relative displacement (mm)

Fig. 10. Maximum relative displacement of upper structure under different seismic waves: (a) Anza, (b) Imperial Valley and (c) Loma Prieta.

25

Equivalent layered cell model

Mass-spring cell model(N=1)
Mass-spring cell model(N=2)
Mass-spring cell model(N=3)

Frequency (Hz)

20

15

10

Normalzied wave vector

Fig. 11. Dispersion curve of the proposed periodic structure obtained by using the
equivalent layered cell model and the mass-spring cell model.

foundation. So, it is easily understood that the new conguration

of seismic isolation foundation proposed in this paper can greatly
block seismic waves compared with the structures with no
isolation base or with traditional rubber bearings.
Good performance of the periodic foundations can be easily understood. To some extent, the layered periodic foundations considered in
our series investigations can be viewed as an enlarged model of
the traditional laminated rubber bearings. Having lower horizontal
rigidness, the periodic foundations can reduce the responses for
both acceleration and relative displacement between oors of
upper structures. However, as aforementioned, the mechanisms

between the periodic foundations and the traditional laminated

rubber bearings are different. That is why the periodic foundations
having the same horizontal rigidness as the traditional laminated
rubber bearings work more effectively.
On the other hand, good performances do not mean that the
proposed isolation method can replace the well-developed isolation systems. Because of the small horizontal rigidness, the
displacement responses of the upper structures with the periodic
foundations may be enlarged under seismic loads or wind loads.
Therefore, further studies should focus on the inuences of the
damping of the periodic foundations and the additional measures
to decrease the displacement response of upper structures.
In addition, it is well known that most of the conventional
seismic isolation devices are effective for new structures as well as
for retrotting of existing ones. Comparatively, the size of the
proposed isolation system is relatively large, it may not be
convenient for retrotting of existing structures. Nevertheless,
the relative displacements between different oors of upper
structures with periodic foundations are much smaller, which is
benecial for civil engineering applications.

6. Conclusions
Based on the periodic theory usually used in solid-state physics,
a new conguration of seismic isolation foundation is proposed
and its isolation ability is numerically simulated. Some conclusions
can be drawn as follows:
(1) Periodic foundations can be constructed by using several
concrete layers and some rubber blocks. The analytical model
can be established based on the equivalent principle on both

Z. Shi et al. / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 57 (2014) 143151

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

mass and shear stiffness. This new conguration of seismic

isolation foundation enjoys the rst attenuation zone between
2.15 Hz and 15.01 Hz.
Two very useful formulas in practical engineering are
obtained. These formulas can be used directly to approximate
the low bound frequency and the width of the rst attenuation
zone without the calculation of the dispersion structure.
Numerical simulations show that the seismic responses of the
structure with the periodic foundation are greatly attenuated
as compared with those of the structure with no isolation base
or with traditional rubber bearings.
Given that this new conguration of seismic isolation foundation can produce very low bound frequency and much wider
attenuation zones, it is more suitable for civil engineering
applications compared with the periodic foundations proposed in our previous works.
The applicability of the proposed foundation to retrot the
existing structure is not very easy. Some additional measures
should also be applied to reduce the displacement of the upper
structures.

Acknowledgment
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51178036) and the Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities (No. 2013JBM010).

Appendix A
For comparison purposes, the proposed periodic structure can
also be simplied as a mass-spring model as shown in Fig. 5(c).
The concrete layer is replaced by a mass M. If we divide every
rubber block layer into 2N parts in the layer direction (z-direction),
each part can be considered as a mass-spring system. The
concentrated mass m is connected by two linear springs. The inplane stiffness of the linear spring is denoted by k. The parameters
M, m and k of this mass-spring model can be determined by the
parameters of concrete layer and rubber block as follows:
M L2 hA

Concrete layer

8
2
>
< 2Nm l hB
2
k
Gl
>

:
2N
hB

Rubber block

A  1

A  2

Therefore, the Lumped Mass method can then be used to calculate

the dispersion relationship.
Taking the thickness of both the concrete layer and the rubber
block layer as 0.2 m, Fig. 11 presents the dispersion curves of the
proposed periodic structure with the size length of the concrete
layer L 10 m and the side length of the rubber block l 1 m.
Results show that the mass-spring model converges very quickly.
And, the dispersion relationship obtained by the equivalent
layered periodic structure model is in line with those obtained
by the mass-spring model.
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