In work the results of a study carried out to characterize the mechanical response of a high damping rubber to be used to design and construct energy dissipating devices and base isolators for controlling strong vibrations in civil engineering structures is presented. A new parametric constitutive model of the rubber is proposed to be employed in the design procedure and structural analysis of passive controlled structures. The parameters of the model are calibrated using experimental results obtained from tests on rubber specimens subjected to different loading paths. The new model is able to reproduce the main dissipative mechanisms as well as axial hardening. The response predicted for the proposed model is compared with these obtained from experimental tests.

Peer Reviewed