• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.195-219
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• 2015

A partial (hybrid) seismic isolation scheme for precast girder bridges in the form of a "buffer-gap-elastomeric bearings" system has been endorsed in the literature as an efficient seismic design system. However, no guides exist to detail an optimal gap size for different configurations. A numerical study is established herein for different scenarios according to Euro code seismic requirements in order to develop guidelines for the selection of optimal buffer-gap arrangements for various design cases. Various schemes are hence designed for ductile and limited ductility behavior of the bridge piers for different seismic demand levels. Seven real ground records are selected to perform incremental dynamic analysis of the bridges up to failure. Bridges with typical short and high piers are studied; and different values of initial gaps at piers are also investigated varying from a zero gap (i.e., fully locked) condition up to an initial gap at piers that is three quarters the gap left at abutments. Among the main conclusions is that the as-built initial gaps at piers (and especially large gap sizes that are ${\geq}1/2$ as-built gaps at abutments) do not practically reduce the seismic design demand and do not affect the reserve capacity of the bridge against failure for bridges featuring long piers, especially when these bridges are designed a priori for ductile behavior. To the contrary, the "buffer-gap-elastomeric bearings" system is more effective for the bridge schemes with short piers having a large difference between the stiffness of the bearings and that of their supporting (much stiffer) squat piers, particularly for designs with limited ductility. Such effectiveness is even amplified for the case of larger initial as-built gap sizes at piers.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.1
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• pp.29-48
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• 2023

Pounding happens when contiguous structures with differing heights vibrate out of line caused by a seismic activity. The situation is aggravated due to the insufficient separation gap between the structures which can lead to the crashing of the buildings or total collapse of an edifice. Countries around the world have compiled building standards to address the pounding issue. One of the strategies recommended is the introduction of the separation gap between structures. AS1170.4-2007 is an Australian standard that requires 1% of the building height as a minimum separation gap between buildings to preclude pounding. This article presents experimental and numerical tests to determine the adequacy of this specification to prevent the occurrence of seismic pounding between steel frame structures under near-field and far-field earthquakes. The results indicated that the recommended minimum separation gap based on the Australian Standard is inaccurate if low-rise structure in a coupled case is utilised under both near and far field earthquakes. The standard is adequate if a tall building is involved but only when a far-field earthquake happens. The research likewise presents results derived by using the ABS and SRSS methods.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.503-526
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• 2012

Pounding between closely located adjacent buildings is a serious issue of dense cities in the earthquake prone areas. Seismic responses of adjacent buildings subjected to earthquake induced pounding are numerically studied in this paper. The adjacent buildings are modeled as the lumped mass shear buildings subjected to earthquake acceleration and the pounding forces are modeled as the Kelvin contact force model. The Kelvin model is activated when the separation gap is closed and the buildings pound together. Characteristics of the Kelvin model are extensively explored and a new procedure is proposed to determine its stiffness. The developed model is solved numerically and a SDOF pounding case as well as a MDOF pounding case of multistory adjacent buildings are elaborated and discussed. Effects of different separation gaps, building heights and earthquake excitations on the seismic responses of adjacent buildings are obtained. Results show that the seismic responses of adjacent buildings are affected negatively by the pounding. More stories pound together and pounding is more intense if the separation gap is smaller. When the height of buildings differs significantly, the taller building is almost unaffected while the shorter building is affected detrimentally. Finally, the buildings should be analyzed case by case considering the potential earthquake excitation in the area.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.435-440
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• 2004

The nonlinear impacts between the Control Element Drive Mechanisms (CEDMs) seismic cap plates installed on the CEDM top of a pressurized water reactor are studied with the dynamically reduced models of the CEDM and Integrated Head Assembly (IHA). It is important to develope nonlinear models considering the gap effects between the plates. In order to simulate impacts, reduced models for the primary structures, such as CEDM and IHA, are developed through simplifying detailed models, and the nonlinear structural analysis is performed under seismic loading conditions. The responses are examined in various gap sizes depending on the reactor operating conditions.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.171-184
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• 2020

The potential of using the roof water tanks as a mitigation measure to minimize the required separation gap and induced pounding forces due to collisions is investigated. The investigation is carried out using nonlinear dynamic analysis for two adjacent 3-story buildings with different dynamic characteristics under two real earthquake motions. For such analysis, nonlinear viscoelastic model is used to simulate forces due to impact. The sloshing force due to water movement is modelled in terms of width of the water tank and the instantaneous wave heights at the end wall. The effect of roof water tanks on the story's responses, separation gap, and magnitude and number of induced pounding forces are investigated. The influence of structural stiffness and storey mass are investigated as well. It is found that pounding causes instantaneous acceleration pulses in the colliding buildings, but the existence of roof water tanks eliminates such acceleration pulses. At the same time the water tanks effectively reduce the number of collisions as well as the magnitude of the induced impact forces. Moreover, buildings without constructed water tanks require wider separation gap to prevent pounding as compared to those with water tanks attached to top floor under seismic excitations.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.127-139
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• 2019

Residual drifts after an earthquake can incur huge repair costs and might need to replace the infrastructure because of its non-reparability. Proper functioning of bridges is also essential in the aftermath of an earthquake. In order to mitigate pounding and unseating damage of bridges subjected to earthquakes, a self-adaptive Ni-Ti shape memory alloy (SMA)-cable-based frictional sliding bearing (SMAFSB) is proposed considering self-adaptive centering, high energy dissipation, better fatigue, and corrosion resistance from SMA-cable component. The developed novel bearing is associated with the properties of modularity, replaceability, and earthquake isolation capacity, which could reduce the repair time and increase the resilience of highway bridges. To evaluate the super-elasticity of the SMA-cable, pseudo-static tests and numerical simulation on the SMA-cable specimens with a diameter of 7 mm are conducted and one dimensional (1D) constitutive hysteretic model of the SMAFSB is developed considering the effects of gap, self-centering, and high energy dissipation. Two types of the SMAFSB (i.e., movable and fixed SMAFSBs) are applied to a two-span continuous reinforced concrete (RC) bridge. The seismic vulnerabilities of the RC bridge, utilizing movable SMAFSB with the constant gap size of 60 mm and the fixed SMAFSBs with different gap sizes (e.g., 0, 30, and 60 mm), are assessed at component and system levels, respectively. It can be observed that the fixed SMAFSB with a gap of 30 mm gained the most retrofitting effect among the three cases.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.89-97
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• 2023

In order to obtain the impact of socket connection interface forms and socket gap sizes on the seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) socket prefabricated bridge piers, quasi-static tests for three socket prefabricated piers with different column-foundation connection interface forms and reserved socket gap sizes, as well as to the corresponding cast-in-situ reinforced concrete piers, were carried out. The influence of socket connection structure on various seismic performance indexes of socket prefabricated piers was studied by comparing and analyzing the hysteresis curve and skeleton curve obtained through the experiment. Results showed that the ultimate failure mode of the socket prefabricated pier with circumferential corrugated treatment at the connection interface was the closest to that of the monolithic pier, the maximum bearing capacity was slightly less than that of the cast-in-situ pier but larger than that of the socket pier with roughened connection interface, and the displacement ductility and accumulated energy consumption capacity were smaller than those of socket piers with roughened connection interface. The connection interface treatment form had less influence on the residual deformation of socket prefabricated bridge piers. With the increase in the reserved socket gap size between the precast pier column and the precast foundation, the bearing capacity of the prefabricated socket bridge pier component, as well as the ductility and residual displacement of the component, would be reduced and had unfavorable effect on the energy dissipation property of the bridge pier component.

• Journal of KSNVE
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.260-266
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• 1998

According to the conventional method of analysis for the seismic sliding of equipment submerged in a pool, in general, only the initial condition of fluid gap is used to estimate the hydrodynamic effect between the two structures throughout the seismic analysis. This is based on the assumption of small displacement relative to the fluid gap thickness during earthquakes. In a narrow fluid gap condition, however, this method may lead to a result of unconservative side. Through example seismic analyses for equipment submerged in a pool of a building, in this paper, it is studied when and how much the sliding response can be underestimated. And method of updating the hydrodynamic effect in each step of time integration is proposed to avoid excessive error in estimation of peak sliding response in such a case.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.499-526
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• 2013

Seismic isolation is an effective method for the protection of buildings and their contents during strong earthquakes. This research work aims to assess the appropriateness of the linear and nonlinear models that can be used in the analysis of typical low-rise base isolated steel buildings, taking into account the inherent nonlinearities of the isolation system as well as the potential nonlinearities of the superstructure in case of strong ground motions. The accuracy of the linearization of the isolator properties according to Eurocode 8 is evaluated comparatively with the corresponding response that can be obtained through the nonlinear hysteretic Bouc-Wen constitutive model. The suitability of the linearized model in the determination of the size of the required seismic gap is assessed, under various earthquake intensities, considering relevant methods that are provided by building codes. Furthermore, the validity of the common assumption of elastic behavior for the superstructure is explored and the alteration of the structural response due to the inelastic deformations of the superstructure as a consequence of potential collision to the restraining moat wall is studied. The usage of a nonlinear model for the isolation system is found to be necessary in order to achieve a sufficiently accurate assessment of the structural response and a reliable estimation of the required width of the provided seismic gap. Moreover, the simulations reveal that the superstructure's inelasticity should be taken into account, especially if the response of the structure under high magnitude earthquakes is investigated. The consideration of the inelasticity of the superstructure is also recommended in studies of structural collision of seismically isolated structures to the surrounding moat wall, since it affects the response.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.78 no.2
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• pp.219-230
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• 2021

International seismic codes stipulate that adjacent buildings should be separated by a specified minimum distance, otherwise the pounding effect should be considered in the design. Recent researches proposed an alternative method (Double Difference Combination Rule) to estimate seismic gap between structures, as this method considers the cross relation of adjacent buildings behavior during earthquakes. Four different criteria were used to calculate the minimum separation distance using this method and results are compared to the international codes for five separation cases. These cases used four case study buildings classified by different heights, lateral load resisting systems and fundamental periods of vibrations to assess the consistency in results for the alternative methods. Non-linear analysis was performed to calculate the inelastic displacements of the four buildings, and the results were used to evaluate the relation between elastic and inelastic displacements due to the ductility of structural elements resisting seismic loads. A verification analysis was conducted to guarantee that the separation distance calculated is sufficient to avoid pounding. Results shows that the use of two out of the four studied methods yields separation distances smaller than that calculated by the code specified equations without under-estimating the minimum separation distance required to avoid pounding.