Experimental tests and numerical modeling of full-scale unbonded fiber reinforced elastomeric isolators (UFREIs) under bidirectional excitation

•2D tests on full-scale FREIs in unbonded configuration under bidirectional orbits.•Lateral coupling of FREIs induces stiffness reduction and damping increase.•Hysteretic behavior simulated through a nonlinear phenomenological model.•The model can be calibrated to account for or to neglect bidirectional interaction selectively.•Numerical discrepancies (10–20%) are obtained by neglecting lateral coupling in a nonlinear time-history analysis. Unbonded fiber reinforced elastomeric isolators (UFREIs) can be used for the seismic protection of structures as a lower-cost alternative to conventional laminated rubber bearings, by replacing internal steel shims with fiber reinforcement and exploiting the frictional mechanism at the rubber-concrete interface to avoid anchorage bolts. In this paper, the hysteretic behavior of full-scale (diameter 620 mm) UFREIs is investigated in both an experimental and a numerical framework when subjected to triaxial loading (i.e., simultaneous imposed displacement along two horizontal directions with concurrently applied vertical load), to account for the inherent multi-directional nature of a real earthquake scenario. Experimental results of UFREIs tested under two bidirectional orbits involving different velocities and amplitudes up to 100% shear strain are presented, and peculiar effects ascribed to the lateral coupling of the devices are identified by comparison with monodirectional test results. Then, an efficient nonlinear phenomenological model is proposed to simulate the isotropically coupled biaxial hysteretic behavior of UFREIs detected from the experiments. This model consists of a set of nonlinear springs arranged in a circular configuration and governed by just three parameters with clear mechanical significance. Novel analytical (closed-form) expressions for the model calibration are ad-hoc developed in this paper. This modeling approach is used to quantify the impact of biaxial coupling of UFREIs on the structural performance of base-isolated structures under bidirectional seismic excitation. To this aim, the seismic response of a three-dimensional reinforced concrete building isolated with UFREIs is numerically simulated. Numerical results show that isolator displacements and superstructure accelerations tend to be higher by using an uncoupled model, calibrated upon monodirectional tests and that neglects bidirectional interaction, as usually performed in practice.