Investigation of modified bituminous geotechnical seismic isolation (GSI) material and investigation of its effect on building behavior

Seismic isolation system is a method used to heal structures against seismic effects. The basic working principle of this system is to decrease the forces acting on the structure due to the earthquake instead of increasing the capacity of the structure to withstand earthquake loads. Traditional insulation systems are costly investments as they are custom made and require special personnel and equipment for installation. Geotechnical seismic isolation (GSI) system can be used for mid-rise and ordinary buildings as it is cheaper than traditional seismic isolation tools and requires only basic construction skills. In this study, it is aimed to develop low cost and easy to apply seismic isolation material for buildings and to examine its effect on building behavior. In this direction, aggregate-modified bitumen mixtures prepared with SBS polymers and carbon fibers modified bitumen. In order to investigate the usability of this material as an isolator material, its dynamic properties were examined by cyclic simple shear test. Within the scope of numerical study, the use of aggregate-modified bitumen material as a seismic isolator in buildings was investigated using the three-dimensional finite element method. Analyzes were made using the SAP 2000 program, which provides solutions with finite element method. When the results of the numerical analysis are examined, it is seen that the response accelerations at the top floor of the building decrease approximately 75% when the seismic isolation system mentioned in the thesis is used compare to non-isolated model. In addition, a 60% reduction was observed in the maximum story drift of the building. Thus, it has been possible to introduce the aggregate-modified bitumen mixture as an effective insulator material.