ABSTRACT
Structural rocking and foundation rocking are two design strategies to provide seismic base isolation. Two building models designed to exhibit each rocking behaviour respectively, were tested simultaneously in a centrifuge under earthquake loading. The instrumentation, detailed in this paper, allowed soil and structural deformations to be derived from measured accelerations, and the force demand of the superstructure (e.g. storey drift) to be derived from measured strains and accelerations. Importantly, these measurements enabled direct comparison of the two rocking systems, quantifying relative benefits. In selected earthquakes, foundation rocking caused larger dynamic differential settlements while structural rocking led to larger rocking rotations.
