Effects of earthquake frequency content and isolation thickness on seismic behavior of a structure system resting on geotechnical seismic isolation layer

Geotechnical seismic isolation (GSI) systems aim to partially dissipate the energy before it reaches the foundation of the structure system and are therefore regarded as an important alternative to structural seismic isolation systems. In addition, the use of petroleum-derived waste materials in the GSI systems fills a significant gap in the field of waste recovery. The present study investigates the changes in the dynamic responses of a 5-story building system with and without GSI, using a set of earthquakes classified according to their frequency content. For this purpose, parametric analyses were performed using analytical methods, considering three different earthquake frequency contents and six different GSI thicknesses. Furthermore, an approach for selecting the GSI thickness was suggested. The results generally show that, for structures founded on both natural soil (NS) and GSI systems, the earthquakes with low frequency content produce responses greater than the average responses calculated for all the investigated earthquakes. Although increasing the GSI thickness has a significant effect on attenuating structural responses, increasing this thickness beyond 3 m does not lead to a relatively significant reduction in the dynamic responses of the investigated structural system. Therefore, considering the structural system, NS, rubber-soil mixtures and earthquakes examined in this study, selecting a GSI thickness in the range of 2–3 m (inclusive) may be regarded as a practical approach for mitigating the dynamic responses of the structure since further increments in thickness beyond this range provide only progressively limited improvements in structural responses. Consequently, this research may provide meaningful data for the development of vibration control strategies to improve seismic resilience of structures, and the results are expected to be useful for better understanding of the GSI applications.