Sustainable and Economic Base Isolators Made by Scrap Tires for Low-rise Buildings in Developing Countries

The use of common seismic bearings poses a significant challenge due to their high cost, limiting their application to structures with a high occupancy importance factor. Consequently, this research aims to introduce innovative and cost-effective base isolators made from discarded tires. These base isolators are particularly suitable for low-rise buildings in developing countries, offering a sustainable solution to mitigate the environmental impact associated with the tire disposal. The study involved the modeling of six different types of these base isolators, with a focus on evaluating their compression and shear behavior through numerical analysis. The results of the study indicate that base isolators featuring bonded rubber layers and vertical steel rods exhibit the most favorable structural performance. Furthermore, the seismic behavior of two-story steel building models, with both fixed-base and base-isolated configurations, was investigated using earthquake accelerograms. The findings demonstrate that the novel base isolator, incorporating bonded rubber layers and vertical steel rods, can effectively reduce the maximum absolute acceleration, maximum interstory drift ratio and max base shear by an average of 47.73%, 51.13% and 59.27%, respectively. Additionally, this base isolator provides a vertical secant stiffness of 55.25 kN/mm and an average effective damping of 0.16. These outcomes highlight the potential of the proposed base isolator design in enhancing the seismic resilience of structures while offering economic benefits.