FULL-SCALE DYNAMIC TESTING OF SEISMIC ISOLATION AND ENERGY DISSIPATION SYSTEMS

Bridge owners in U.S. have recently become interested in a variety of seismic isolation and energy dissipation systems offered by several manufacturers. There are a number of challenges and barriers to the implementation of these systems however. The most important are the proprietary nature of these systems and the lack of knowledge of their dynamic characteristics and longevity. In addition, there are no uniform design standards and no agreement on testing protocols. While several of the available systems have undergone static and dynamic testing, the testing often consisted of pseudo static tests or reduced-scale shake-table tests. Some dynamic characteristics can be established from static behavior, but a full-scale dynamic test is the only true test of the response of any system to an earthquake. Full-scale tests are essential to develop higher confidence levels among bridge designers and owners, which will lead to a wider application of seismic isolation in the United States.