Seismic Isolation Retrofit of an Office Building Using Friction Pendulum System

Friction Pendulum Systems have been used as base isolation systems for both new construction and retrofit around the world. This paper presented its implementation in an office building located in Shanghai. To evaluate its impact on seismic performance of the retrofitted structure, models are needed to capture the intricate nonlinear behavior of both structural components and isolator elements. Nonlinear time history analysis of the building for the original and retrofitted cases was conducted to assess the efficiency of the isolation system at the high earthquake level. The numerical results indicate that the retrofitted structure experiences significantly less damage and less deformation due to the shake isolation and energy dissipation through the isolators.