EARTHQUAKE

ENGINEERING
GEO-TECHNICAL SEISMIC ISOLATION
SYSTEM

KARAN PANDEY (PT401116) I MAHAK BASSI (PT400616) I

YOGENDRA SHAH (PT401816)
CEPT UNIVERSITY
 INTRODUCTION

Earthquake is a very haphazard phenomenon; various design considerations are available to design
structure for earthquake forces; but a structure designed encompassing all considerations does not
confirms its non-failure against earthquake forces.

Design considerations take us to earthquake resistance structures as designing for earthquake proof
structure is uneconomical. These considerations gives us suggestions on how the layout of the
building should be, positioning and limiting of openings, framing system, ductility and on various
other aspects.

Still due to limitation of effect of these aspects on strengthening the response of structure to
earthquake and architectural aspect is hindered, a new area of study has emerged of geotechnical
isolation system to resist earthquake at its origin to structure; by strengthening the soil as
earthquake forces reaches the structure through soil.

This paper aims to study the various methods/system to improve the seismic performance of
structure and to suggest a suitable alternative to strengthen the response of the structure
economically.

Geotechnical seismic Isolation System- A brief Overview

The GSI system is eco-friendly and cost effective as it involves usage of scrap tyres which is a
significant threat to our environment.

In this system, the soil layer underneath the superstructure is replaced by sand mixed with a
specified content of shredded or granulated rubber material. This mixture exhibits tremendous
energy absorption capacity under dynamic loadings. With the increase of rubber proportion, the
dynamic response behaviour of the rubber-sand mixture (RSM0 becomes more elastic.
 Literature Review

Application of Tire chips in reinforcement of soil: A review (Karma Hissey Lepcha, Arvind Kuamr
Agnihotri, Akash Priyadarhee, Manish Yadav)

Since plain soil is weak to be used for construction purposes, soil is reinforced with either low
modulus tire chips, plant roots or fibres or high modulus metal strips to increase strength and
stability.

Various applications of tire chips have been explained such as increasing bearing capacity of sand, as
drainage material, in lightweight backfill.

Dynamic Properties of Granulated Rubber/Sand Mixtures (Zheng Yi Feng and Kevin G Sutter)

The paper explores the dynamic properties of rubber sand mixture by varying the quantity of
granulated rubber by 29%, 49%, 76%, and 100% by weight using resonant column test. The sand
used was Ottawa test sand of specific gravity 2.67. The basic difference between rubber and sand
particles is that, the sand particles are stiff so they dissipate less energy in particle deformation
whereas since rubber is elastic, it dissipates the energy. A formula to find out maximum shear
modulus is derived which is used to plot graph for shear modulus versus shear strain for different
percentages of rubber of the mixture.

Rubber soil cushion for earthquake protection (Hing Ho Tsang, M Neaz Sheikh, Nelson Lam.)

The paper recommends a seismic isolation method that reduces both horizontal and vertical
shaking by using rubber from scrap tires. This rubber is mixed with soil to form rubber soil
mixture (RSM) which acts as a cushion beneath the structure. Since the method is cost-
effective it can be used in developing countries.
A series of numerical stimulations and parametric study have been carried out to
demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. Five issues regarding the concept have been
identified-non-linear site response, soil resonance effects, liquefaction, ground settlement
and environmental effects.

Protecting low to medium rise buildings by scrap tire soil mixtures. Australian Earthquake
Engineering society. (Hing Ho Tsang, Nelson T K Lam, Saman Yaghmaei- Sabegh, M Neaz Sheikh,
Wei Xiong, Shou- Ping Shang)

The paper introduces the use of sand rubber tire mixtures for use around building
foundation for vibration absorption. The validity of the proposed method has been shown
by a number of numerical simulations using various recorded ground motions. Thus utilizing
rubber tyres in earthquake hazard mitigation can be a viable approach of resolving problems
associated with waste tire disposal.
Shear properties of sand tire chip mixtures- EJGE (Amination Marto, Nima Latifi, Razeih Moradi)

The paper discusses the shear properties of sand after scrap tires are added in varying
percentages of 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% through direct shear tests. It is found that
shear resistance of the mixture is greater than that of sand alone. Also, adding 10-20% of
tire chips to sand increases the internal friction from 32.8 to 34.2. Furthermore, by adding
tire chips the weight of the mixture decreases which also leads to decrease in the lateral
earth pressure.

Soil stabilization using shredded rubber tyre (Umar Jain, Vinod K Sonthwal, Ajay Kumar Duggal, Er
Jasvir S Rattan, Mohd Irrfan).

The paper discusses the behaviour of pavement subgrade soil mixed with shredded rubber
tire. The soil was mixed with 4%, 6%, 8% and 10% by weight of soil. It was found that
shredded rubber tire mixed with soil showed enhancement in CBR value by adding up to 8 %
when rubber tire of size 25mm*50mm was used. The percentage enhancement in CBR value
was 66.28% as compared to plain soil.

Direct shear strength of sand tire shred mixtures (J S Vinod, N Sheikh, D Mastello, B Indraratna, M
S Mashiri.)

The paper demonstrates improvement of shear strength on addition of tire shreds. It was
found that sand- tire show higher shear and vertical strain with increase in sand. The value
of friction angle also increases with increase in tire shreds.

Small-Strain Shear Modulus and Damping Ratio of Sand-Rubber and Gravel-Rubber Mixtures
(Anastasios ananastasiadis, Kostas Senetakis, Kyriazis Pitilakis.)

The paper studies the small-strain dynamic properties of sand and granulated tire rubber
mixtures by performing torsional resistant column tests. Based on the test results, a series of
equations have been developed that can be used to evaluate shear modulus and damping
ratio.

Geotechnical Seismic Isolation System - Experimental Study (Wei Xiong, Hin-Ho Tsang, S.H. Lo,
Shouping Shang, Haidong Wang, Fangyuan Zhou)

This paper describes the effect of thickness of rubber sand mixture layer and percentage of
rubber content in the mixture on the dynamic response of the structure.
Results are derived by preparing models and testing their response on-to the shaking table.
The dynamic response of the superstructure can be substantially reduced when GSI system
is applied in shaking table tests. The seismic isolation performance of the GSI system is
dependent on the percentage of rubber in RSM, thickness of RSM layer, and the level of
input ground shakings.
A new seismic isolation system- sleeved pile with soil-rubber mixture (A Komak Panah, A H
Khoslay)

In this paper the use of sleeved piles with soil rubber mixture is used. Compressive and
tensile load is applied gradually to the cap pile by a hydraulic jack. In all three models, the
compressive load is increased to 100kgf followed by unloading and reloading to tensile load
of 100kgf.
The loading is increased to 200,300 and 400kgf in the subsequent cycles.
To achieve a softer system with longer period, one an increase the length of the sleeve as
well use a mixture with more rubber particles.