• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.715-726
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• 2019

Several municipal seismic vulnerability investigations have been identified pounding of adjacent structures as one of the main hazards due to the constrained separation distance between adjacent buildings. Consequently, an assessment of the seismic pounding risk of buildings is superficial in future adjustment of design code provisions for buildings. The seismic lateral oscillation of adjacent buildings with eccentric alignment is partly restrained, and therefore a torsional response demand is induced in the building under earthquake excitation due to eccentric pounding. In this paper, the influence of the eccentric seismic pounding on the design demands for adjacent symmetric buildings with eccentric alignment is presented. A mathematical simulation is formulated to evaluate the eccentric pounding effects on the seismic design demands of adjacent buildings, where the seismic response analysis of adjacent buildings in series during collisions is investigated for various design parameters that include number of stories; in-plan alignment configurations, and then compared with that for no-pounding case. According to the herein outcomes, the effects of seismic pounding severity is mainly depending on characteristics of vibrations of the adjacent buildings and on the characteristics of input ground motions as well. The position of the building wherever exterior or interior alignment also, influences the seismic pounding severity as the effect of exposed direction from one or two sides. The response of acceleration and the shear force demands appear to be greater in case of adjacent buildings as seismic pounding at different levels of stories, than that in case of no-pounding buildings. The results confirm that torsional oscillations due to eccentric pounding play a significant role in the overall pounding-involved response of symmetric buildings under earthquake excitation due to horizontal eccentric alignment.

• 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.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.289-308
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• 2018

Numerous urban seismic vulnerability studies have recognized pounding as one of the main risks due to the restricted separation distance between neighboring structures. The pounding effects on the adjacent buildings could extend from slight non-structural to serious structural damage that could even head to a total collapse of buildings. Therefore, an assessment of the seismic pounding hazard to the adjacent buildings is superficial in future building code calibrations. Thus, this study targets are to draw useful recommendations and set up guidelines for potential pounding damage evaluation for code calibration through a numerical simulation approach for the evaluation of the pounding risks on adjacent buildings. A numerical simulation is formulated to estimate the seismic pounding effects on the seismic response demands of adjacent buildings for different design parameters that include: number of stories, separation distances; alignment configurations, and then compared with nominal model without pounding. Based on the obtained results, it has been concluded that the severity of the pounding effects depends on the dynamic characteristics of the adjacent buildings and the input excitation characteristics, and whether the building is exposed to one or two-sided impacts. Seismic pounding among adjacent buildings produces greater acceleration and shear force response demands at different story levels compared to the no pounding case response demands.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.1029-1044
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• 2015

To investigate the seismic pounding response of long-span bridges with high-piers under strong ground motions, shaking table tests were performed on a 1/10-scaled bridge model consisting of three continuous spans with rigid frames and one simply-supported span. The seismic pounding responses of this bridge model under different earthquake excitations including the uniform excitation and the traveling wave excitations were experimentally studied. The influence of dampers to the seismic pounding effects at the expansion joints was analyzed through nonlinear dynamic analyses in this research. The seismic pounding effects obtained from numerical analyses of the bridge model are in favorable agreement with the experimental results. Seismic pounding effect of bridge superstructures is dependent on the structural dynamic properties of the adjacent spans and characteristics of ground motions. Moreover, supplemental damping can effectively mitigate pounding effects of the bridge superstructures, and reduce the base shear forces of the bridge piers.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.71-87
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• 2014

Interaction between closely-spaced buildings subject to earthquake induced strong ground motions, termed in the literature as "seismic pounding", occurs commonly during major seismic events in contemporary congested urban environments. Seismic pounding is not taken into account by current codes of practice and is rarely considered in practice at the design stage of new buildings constructed "in contact" with existing ones. Thus far, limited research work has been devoted to quantify the influence of slab-to-slab pounding on the inelastic seismic demands at critical locations of structural members in adjacent structures that are not aligned in series. In this respect, this paper considers a typical case study of a "new" reinforced concrete (R/C) EC8-compliant, torsionally sensitive, 7-story corner building constructed within a block, in bi-lateral contact with two existing R/C 5-story structures with same height floors. A non-linear local plasticity numerical model is developed and a series of non-linear time-history analyses is undertaken considering the corner building "in isolation" from the existing ones (no-pounding case), and in combination with the existing ones (pounding case). Numerical results are reported in terms of averages of ratios of peak inelastic rotation demands at all structural elements (beams, columns, shear walls) at each storey. It is shown that seismic pounding reduces on average the inelastic demands of the structural members at the lower floors of the 7-story building. However, the discrepancy in structural response of the entire block due to torsion-induced, bi-directionally seismic pounding is substantial as a result of the complex nonlinear dynamics of the coupled building block system.

• 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.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.791-803
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• 2012

Significant structural damages due to pounding between adjacent superstructures of multi-span reinforced concrete (RC) highway bridges have been observed in past earthquakes. Different methods have been proposed in the literature to mitigate the adverse seismic pounding effects. This paper presents an analytical investigation on the use of magnetorheological (MR) dampers in reducing seismic pounding effects of base-isolated multi-span RC highway bridges. It has been observed that MR damper can effectively reduce the seismic pounding effect. Three control strategies (passive off, passive on, and bang bang control) of MR damper have been investigated. Although all the control strategies are found to be effective, bang bang control has been observed to be the most effective.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.231-238
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• 1999

The longitudinal dynamic behaviors of the bridge system consisting of multiple simply supported spans under seismic excitations are examined considering pounding effects. The pounding phenomena between adjacent girders which may consequently result in the span collapses are modeled by using the multi-degree-of-freedom system, The inelastic behavior of the RC pier is also considered by adopting the hysteresis loop model and the p-$\delta$ effect. Motions of the foundation and abutment are also considered but the local damage resulting from the girder pounding assumed to be neligible. The developed model is found to give the appropriate information of the dynamic characteristics of the bridge behavior. It is observed that the pounding effect becomes significant as the peak acceleration of the seismic excitation increases. Under minor earthquakes the pounding tends to increase the relative displacements while under strong earthquakes it tends to decrease the relative displacements by restricting the longitudinal girder motions, therefore it is suggested that the pounding effects should be considered in the analysis of the relative displacements of the longitudinally adjacent girder motions.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.193-202
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• 1999

effect of pounding and friction between oscillators upon global response behaviors of a bridge system under seismic excitations are examined in this study. For convenience an idealized mechanical model is proposed which still retains the dynamic characteristics of bridge motions using multiple oscillators, Each oscillator is consisting of four degrees-of-freedom to implement the pounding between the adjacent oscillators and friction at movable supports, The impact element and bi-linear model are utilized for pounding and friction at movable supports. The impact element and bi-linear model are utilized for pounding and friction respectively. Also the effects of abutments are investigated by adding the addition oscillators consisting of two degrees-of-freedom. The effects of pounding and frictions are determined using the proposed model and the effect of the abutment is also verified, It is found that both pounding and friction affect the bridge responses significantly while the first pounding occurs between the abutment and the nearby oscillator.

• 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.