Fiber-reinforced nanocomposite seismic isolators: Design and manufacturing

Fiber-reinforced elastomeric isolator (FREI) is a new generation of seismic isolation device in which steel plates are replaced by fiber reinforcement. The essential characteristic of the elastomeric isolator is a very large ratio of the vertical to horizontal stiffness. This is somehow provided in FREI by resembling to steel reinforced elastomeric isolators (SREI). In this work, a comparative experimental analysis is presented to evaluate the performance of fiber-reinforced nanocomposite elastomeric isolator (FRNEI) with FREI. FRNEI was manufactured based on nanocomposite rubber compound. The results clearly indicate an increase of 20% in the ratio of the vertical to horizontal stiffness for FRNEI when compared with FREI. POLYM. COMPOS., 2010. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers