Experimental investigation on a novel 3D isolator made of shape memory alloy pseudo-rubber

Base isolation technology has been widely theoretically and experimentally investigated, and it has also been verified through many severe earthquakes. Three dimensional (3-D) isolation technology was proposed several years ago, and the 3-D isolation theory has well developed till now. However, the development of 3-D isolation technology was deeply affected by the 3-D isolator devices. Many presented 3-D isolators are generally made up of complicated components, such as rubber, springs, dampers or theirs combinations. These isolators have some problem in certain extent, such as difficult fabrication process or little energy dissipation ability along the vertical direction. This paper presents a novel 3- D isolator which is made up of martensitic shape memory alloy wires through weaving, rolling, and punching. Mechanical properties of 3-D shape memory alloy pseudo-rubber isolator (SMAPRI) are investigated including compression, shear, and compression-shear loading with different frequencies and amplitudes. The mechanical behavior of isolators with different parameters is also compared. Accordingly, the mechanism resulting in the above differences is also analyzed. Experimental results indicated that 3-D SMAPRI has good mechanical properties and energy dissipation ability along both of horizontal and vertical direction. The fabrication process of the proposed 3-D isolator is relatively easy and the mechanism of isolation is clearer than the traditional 3-D isolators. Therefore, this new kind of 3-D isolator has good potentiality in both of seismic isolation for civil infrastructures and industrial isolation for important or precision equipment.