The lead-rubber bearing (LRB) dissipates seismic energy through plastic deformation of lead core. Under large-displacement cyclic motion, the temperature increases in the lead core. The shear strength of a lead–rubber bearing is reduced due to the heating effect of the lead core. In this study, the seismic responses such as displacement increasing, shear strength and vertical stiffness degradations of LRB due to the heating effect are evaluated for design basis earthquake (DBE) and beyond design basis earthquake (150% DBE, 167% DBE, 200% DBE).

It is very important to assure the seismic performance of equipment as well as building structures in seismic design of nuclear power plant(NPP). Seismically isolated structures may be reviewed mainly on the horizontal seismic responses. Considering the equipment installed in the NPP, the vertical earthquake responses of the structure also should be reviewed. This study has investigated the vertical seismic demand of seismically isolated structure by lead rubber bearings(LRBs). For the numerical evaluation of seismic demand of the base isolated NPP, the Korean standard nuclear power plant (APR1400) is modeled as 4 different models, which are supported by LRBs to have 4 different horizontal target periods. Two real earthquake records and artificially generated input motions have been used as inputs for earthquake analyses. For the study, the vertical floor response spectra(FRS) were generated at the major points of the structure. As a results, the vertical seismic responses of horizontally isolated structure have largely increased due to flexibility of elastomeric isolator. The vertical stiffness of the bearings are more carefully considered in the seismic design of the base-isolated NPPs which have the various equipment inside.