• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.193-202
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• 2018

This paper studied the probability of pounding occurred between decks and abutments of a long span high-pier continuous rigid fame bridge subjected to ground motions with local soil effect. A pounding probability analysis methodology has been proposed using peak acceleration at bedrock as intensity measure (IM) for multi-support seismic analysis. The bridge nonlinear finite element (FE) models was built with four different separation distances. Effect of actual site condition and non-uniform spatial soil profiles on seismic wave propagating from bedrock to ground surface is modelled. Pounding probability of the high-pier bridge under multi-support seismic excitations (MSSE) is analyzed based on the nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis (n-IDA). Pounding probability results under uniform excitations (UE) without actual local site effect are compared with that under MSSE with site effect. The study indicates that the required design separation length between deck and abutment under uniform excitations is larger than that under MSSE as the peak acceleration at bedrock increases. As the increase of both separation distance between deck and abutment and the peak acceleration, the probability of pounding occurred at a single abutment or at two abutments simultaneously under MSSE is less than that under UE. It is of great significance considering actual local site effect for determining the separation distance between deck and abutment through the probability pounding analysis of the high-pier bridge under MSSE.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.289-304
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• 2022

During strong ground motions, adjacent structures with insufficient separation distances collide with each other causing considerable architectural and structural damage or collapse of the whole structure. Generally, existing design procedures for determining the separation distance between adjacent buildings subjected to structural pounding are based on approximations of the buildings' peak relative displacement. These procedures are based on unknown safety levels. This paper attempts to evaluate the influence of foundation flexibility on the structural seismic response by considering the variability in the system and uncertainties in the ground motion characteristics through comprehensive numerical simulations. Actually, the aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of foundation flexibility on probabilistic evaluation of structural pounding. A Hertz-damp pounding force model has been considered in order to effectively capture impact forces during collisions. In total, 5.25 million time-history analyses were performed over the adopted models using an ensemble of 25 ground motions as seismic input within OpenSees software. The results of the study indicate that the soil-structure interaction significantly influences the pounding-involved responses of adjacent structures during earthquakes and generally increases the pounding probability.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.183-192
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• 2017

Seismic pounding between adjacent buildings with inadequate separation and different dynamic characteristics can cause severe damage to the colliding buildings. Efficient estimation of the maximum pounding force is required to control the extent of damage in adjacent structures or develop an appropriate mitigation method. In this paper, an analytical approach on the basis of statistical relations is presented for approximate computation of extreme value of pounding force between two adjacent structures with equal or unequal heights subjected to stationary and non-stationary excitations. The nonlinearity of adjacent structures is considered using Bouc-Wen model of hysteresis and the pounding effect is simulated by applying the nonlinear viscoelastic model. It is shown that the proposed approach can significantly save computational costs by obviating the need for performing dynamic analysis. To assess the reliability and accuracy of the proposed approach, the results are compared with those obtained from nonlinear dynamic analysis.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.1
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• pp.19-35
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• 2021

Existing methods to estimate the probability of seismic pounding occurrence of adjacent buildings do not account for nonlinear behavior or only apply to simple lumped mass systems. The present study proposes an efficient method based on subset simulation for fragility and risk assessment of seismic pounding occurrence between nonlinear adjacent buildings neglecting pounding effects with application to finite element models. The proposed method is first applied to adjacent buildings modeled as elastoplastic systems with substantially different dynamic properties for different structural parameters. Seismic pounding fragility and risk of adjacent frame structures with different floor levels is then assessed, paying special attention to modeling the non-linear material behavior in finite element models. Difference in natural periods and impact location are identified to affect the pounding fragility simultaneously. The reliability levels of the minimum code-specified separation distances are also determined. In addition, the incremental dynamic analysis method is extended to assess seismic pounding fragility of the adjacent frame structures, resulting in higher fragility estimates for separation distances larger than the minimum code-specified ones in comparison with the proposed method.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.346-353
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• 2002

The risk of bearing failure is evaluated through the seismic response analysis of a bridge considering the probabilistic characteristics of structural properties such as the mass of superstructure, the stiffness of pier, and the translational and rotational stiffness of the foundation as well as seismic loadings during the bridge service lift. The effect of pounding between adjacent vibration units on the risk of bearing failure is also investigated. The probabilistic characteristics of structural properties are obtained by the Monte Carlo simulations based on the probabilistic characteristics of basic random variables included in the structural properties. From the simulation results, the failure probability of fixed bearings attached on the abutment is found to be much higher than those placed on the piers. It is also found that the pounding effect significantly increases the failure probability of bearings. In the simply supported bridges, the risk of bearing failure increases as the number of bridge spans increase. Therefore, the failure probability of fixed bearing due to the effects of pounding phenomena and the number of bridge spans should be considered in the seismic desist of bearings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.67 no.5
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• pp.427-437
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• 2018

Structural pounding is commonly observed phenomenon during major ground motion, which can cause both structural and architectural damages. To reduce the amount of damage from pounding, the best and effective way is to increase the separation distance. Generally, existing design procedures for determining the separation distance between adjacent buildings subjected to structural pounding are based on approximations of the buildings' peak relative displacement. These procedures are based on unknown safety levels. The aim of this research is to estimate probabilistic separation distance between adjacent structures by considering the variability in the system and uncertainties in the earthquakes characteristics through comprehensive numerical simulations. A large number of models were generated using a robust Monte-Carlo simulation. In total, 6.54 million time-history analyses were performed over the adopted models using an ensemble of 25 ground motions as seismic input within OpenSees software. The results show that a gap size of 50%, 70% and 100% of the considered design code for the structural periods in the range of 0.1-0.5 s, leads to have the probability of pounding about 41.5%, 18% and 5.8%, respectively. Finally, based on the results, two equations are developed for probabilistic determination of needed structural separation distance.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.297-316
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• 2015

The use of fragility curves in the design of bridges is becoming common these days. In this study, experimental data have been used to develop fragility curves for the potential of girder unseating of a three-segment bridge and a bridge-abutment system including the influence of spatially varying ground motions, pounding, and abutment movement. The ground excitations were simulated based on the design spectra for different soil conditions. The Newmarket Viaduct replacement bridge in Auckland was used as the prototype bridge. These fragility curves were also applied to the 2010 Darfield and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes. The study showed that for bridges with similar characteristics as the chosen prototype and with similar fundamental frequencies, pounding could increase the probability of girder unseating by up to 35% and 30% based on the AASHTO and NZTA seating length requirements, respectively. The assumption of uniform ground excitations in many design practices, such as the NZTA requirements, could potentially be disastrous as girders might have a very good chance of unseating (as much as 53% higher chances when considering spatial variation of ground motions) even when they are designed not to. In the case of superstructures with dissimilar frequencies, the assumption of fixed abutments could significantly overestimate the girder unseating potential when pounding was ignored and underestimate the chances when pounding was considered. Bridges subjected to spatially varying ground excitations simulated based on the New Zealand design spectra for soft soil conditions with weak correlation shows the highest chances of girders falling off, of up to 65% greater than for shallow soil excitations.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.147-155
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• 2022

Regarding the importance of seismic pounding, the available standards and guidelines specify minimum separation distance between adjacent buildings. However, the rules in this field are generally based on some simple assumptions, and the level of confidence is uncertain. This is attributed to the fact that the relative response of adjacent structures is strongly dependent on the frequency content of the applied records and the Eigen frequencies of the adjacent structures as well. Therefore, this research aims at investigating the separation distance of the buildings through a probabilistic-based algorithm. In order to empower the algorithm, the record-to-record uncertainties, are considered by probabilistic approaches; besides, a wide extent of material nonlinear behaviors can be introduced into the structural model by the implementation of the hysteresis Bouc-Wen model. The algorithm is then simplified by the application of the linearization concept and using the response acceleration spectrum. By implementing the proposed algorithm, the separation distance in a specific probability level can be evaluated without the essential need of performing time-consuming dynamic analyses. Accuracy of the proposed method is evaluated using nonlinear dynamic analyses of adjacent structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.555-564
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• 2018

Allowing structures to uplift in earthquakes can significantly reduce or even avoid the development of plastic hinges within the structure. The permanent deformations in the structure can thus be minimized. However, uplift of footings can cause additional horizontal movements of a structure. With an increase in movement relative to adjacent structures, the probability of pounding between structures increases. This experimental study reveals that the footing mass can be used to control the vertical displacement of footing and thus reduce the horizontal displacements of an upliftable structure. A four storey model structure with plastic hinges and uplift capability was considered. Shake table tests using ten different earthquake records were conducted. Three different footing masses were considered. It is found that the amplitude of footing uplift can be greatly reduced by increasing the mass of the footing. As a result, allowing structural uplift does not necessary increase the horizontal displacement of the structure. The results show that with increasing footing weight, the interaction between structural and footing response can increase the contribution of the higher modes to the structural response. Consequently, the induced vibrations on secondary structure increase.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.1-14
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• 2007

Optimal design method of nonlinear damping system for seismic response control of adjacent structures is studied in this paper. The objective functions of the optimal design are defined by structural response and total amount of the dampers. In order to obtain a solution minimizing two mutually conflicting objective functions simultaneously, multi-objective optimization technique based on genetic algorithm is adopted. In addition, stochastic linearization method is embedded into the multi-objective framework to efficiently estimate the seismic responses of the adjacent structures interconnected by nonlinear hysteretic dampers without performing nonlinear time-history analyses. As a numerical example to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique, 20-story and 10-story buildings are considered and MR dampers of which hysteretic behaviors vary with the magnitude of the input voltage are considered as nonlinear hysteretic damper interconnecting two adjacent buildings. The proposed approach can provide the optimal number and capacities of the MR dampers, which turned out to be more economical than the uniform distribution system while maintaining similar control performance. The proposed damper system is verified to show more stable performance in terms of the pounding probability between two adjacent buildings. The applicability of the proposed method to the design problem for optimally placing semi-active control system is examined as well.