Maximum stress of interlayer steel plates in elastomeric isolator

Recently, laminated rubber bearings are used in many buildings as isolation devices. This paper presents the results of Finite Element Analysis (FEM) of elastomeric isolators with a diameter of 500 mm, and proposes a prediction method of the maximum stress in the interlayer steel plate. This analysis was focused on the maximum stress of the steel plate while the isolator was deformed in the horizontal direction. The steel plate was modeled as an elasto-plastic material. The elastomeric material was represented by the strain energy density function (Takayama et al., my 1992). The maximum stress in the steel plates increased and exceeded the yield stress as the shear deformation became larger. The total yield area of the steel plates without a central hole was below 10% of the actual plan area, but, in the case of plates with a central hole of 50 mm in diameter, the total yield area was over 20%. The prediction method shows a good correspondence with the FEM results