Seismic response of spring-damper-rolling systems with concave friction distribution

The uneven distribution of rolling friction coefficient may lead to great uncertainty in the structural seismic isolation performance. This paper attempts to improve the isolation performance of a spring-damper-rolling isolation system by artificially making the uneven friction distribution to be concave. The rolling friction coefficient gradually increases when the isolator rolls away from the original position during an earthquake. After the spring-damper-rolling isolation system under different ground motions was calculated by a numerical analysis method, the system obtained more regular results than that of random uneven friction distributions. Results shows that the concave friction distribution can not only dissipate the earthquake energy, but also change the structural natural period. These functions improve the seismic isolation efficiency of the spring-damper-rolling isolation system in comparison with the random uneven distribution of rolling friction coefficient, and always lead to a relatively acceptable isolation state even if the actual earthquake significantly differs from the design earthquake.