The Experimental Study on Mechanical Behavior of Conveyor Belt Rubber Bearings

Fabric core conveyor belt rubber bearing (CBRB) with low cost and a simple manufacturing process has been proposed to further popularize seismic isolation technology in low-rise buildings, and four samples of such bearings have been produced, including four-layer, five-layer, five-layer with inner pattern and six-layer fabric core CBRBs. The vertical compression and the compression shear test are carried out to evaluate the performances of the four bearings. Results show that the vertical stiffness of the CBRB increases as the number of fabric core layer increases, while the damping ratio decreases, and the bearings can withstand a vertical pressure of 10 MPa. In addition, these bearings work very well within 100% shear strain, and the horizontal stiffness of the bearings decreases with increasing shear strain. In the meantime, as the number of fabric core layer increases, the effective horizontal stiffness of the bearings increases under 4 MPa compressive stress, and the damping ratio coefficient of the bearing is about 15%, when bearing sliding does not occur. The ultimate shear strain reached up to 200% for the four-layer bearing with obvious interlayer cracks, which means that the bonding quality between layers is the key influencing factor on the ultimate shear strain. In short, the proposed low-cost bearing has low horizontal stiffness and good energy dissipation capacity, so it is suitable for low-rise buildings in economically underdeveloped, high intensity areas, which can significantly improve their earthquake resistance and reduce casualties and property losses.