Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, cilt.21, sa.8, ss.3851-3877, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)
The mixture of sand-expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads has emerged as an alternative seismic isolation geomaterial due to its high compressibility and energy absorption capacity features. The objective of this study is to determine the effectiveness of a new proposed geotechnical seismic isolation material, EPS beads-sand mixtures, on the seismic performance of the medium-rise buildings by shake table tests. A 1/10 scaled five-story building model was used in order to determine the effects of the EPS-beads as an isolation material. The seismic isolation layers were created surrounding the foundation of a mid-rise building model with sand-EPS beads mixtures at varying thicknesses. The influence of various parameters, particularly the earthquake characteristics of input motions, the EPS beads content, and the thickness of the isolation layer were investigated. As a result of the extensive experimental program, it was revealed that the EPS40 with the 15 cm isolation thickness significantly reduced the peak accelerations and the inter-story drifts. The utilization of the EPS beads-sand mixture layer surrounding the foundation may be accepted as an alternative seismic isolation material. In addition, the results of this first study were also evaluated according to rubber-sand mixtures as another GSI material in the literature. The results showed that the proposed GSI material is very sensitive to the changes of EPS content and earthquake characteristics. This study is very important as it shows that EPS beads-sand mixtures can be accepted as a potential seismic isolation material.