In Santiago to talk about a new generation of High Damping Rubber Bearings

The 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering will be held in Santiago del Chile on January 9th to 13th, 2017.

The 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering represent an unique opportunity for exchange of knowledge and discussion of experiences in earthquake engineering among researchers, practicing engineers and other interested persons from academic institutions, private companies, and official agencies throughout the world.

Topics will include seismic resilient cities, earthquake risk reduction in developing countries, earthquake engineering in practice, international issues in earthquake engineering, engineering seismology, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, performance-based design, lifeline systems, seismic isolation, design criteria and methods, social and economic issues, and lessons from recent earthquakes.

BIT staff will attend the conference and will present a paper reporting on research and development activities carried out for the development of a new material, based on natural rubber, specially formulated to give a hysteresis damping of minimum 22% at design shear strain. The use of the high damping rubber compound developed avoids the need for lead plug to be inserted in the bearing and the need for auxiliary dampers such as viscous or elasto-plastic steel dampers in the isolation system.