Relaxation method for pounding action between adjacent buildings at expansion joint

Earthquake‐induced structural pounding frequently causes serious damage to buildings, particularly at the expansion joint (hereafter, EXPJ) between adjacent buildings. Because the EXPJ width in existing reinforced concrete buildings is usually very small, typically about 5 cm for school buildings in Japan, collision avoidance cannot be achieved by seismic retrofitting. This paper presents an experimental investigation into an effective method for reducing severe structural damage due to pounding at the EXPJ between narrowly separated buildings. The method involves inserting a shock‐absorbing material such as rubber into the EXPJ gap. The efficiency of the proposed method is evaluated by laboratory shaking tests using two model buildings. Furthermore, a lumped mass model is used to carry out a collision analysis in order to numerically investigate the influence of such a shock‐absorbing material. Both the numerical and experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The validity of the proposed method is also demonstrated by numerical simulation of adjacent 10‐story steel buildings with an EXPJ width of 5 cm. The force, acceleration and velocity produced by earthquake‐induced structural pounding are found to be remarkably mitigated by inserting a soft shock‐absorbing material into the EXPJ gap. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mitigation measures for earthquake induced pounding effects on seismic performance of adjacent buildings

Post-earthquake damages investigation in past and recent earthquakes has illustrated that the building structures are vulnerable to severe damage and/or collapse during moderate to strong ground motion. Among the possible structural damages, seismic induced pounding has been commonly observed in several earthquakes. A parametric study on buildings pounding response as well as proper seismic hazard mitigation practice for adjacent buildings is carried out. Three categories of recorded earthquake excitation are used for input excitations. The effect of impact is studied using linear and nonlinear contact force model for different separation distances and compared with nominal model without pounding consideration. The severity of the impact depends on the dynamic characteristics of the adjacent buildings in combination with the earthquake characteristics. Pounding produces acceleration and shear forces/stresses at various story levels that are greater than those obtained from the no pounding case, while the peak drift depends on the input excitation characteristics. Also, increasing gap width is likely to be effective when the separation is sufficiently wide to eliminate contact. Furthermore, it is effective to provide a shock absorber device system for the mitigation of impact effects between adjacent buildings with relatively narrow seismic gaps, where the sudden changes of stiffness during poundings can be smoothed. This prevents, to some extent, the acceleration peaks due to impact. The pounding forces exerted on the adjacent buildings can be satisfactorily reduced.     

Use of collision shear walls to minimize seismic separation and to protect adjacent buildings from collapse due to earthquake‐induced pounding

The use of collision shear walls (bumper‐type), acting transversely to the side subject to pounding, as a measure to minimize damage of reinforced concrete buildings in contact, is investigated using 5‐story building models. The buildings were designed according to the Greek anti‐seismic and reinforced concrete design codes. Owing to story height differences potential pounding in case of an earthquake will occur between floor slabs, a case specifically chosen because this is when pounding can turn out to be catastrophic. The investigation is carried out using nonlinear dynamic analyses for a real earthquake motion and also a simplified solution for a triangular dynamic force of short duration, comparable to the forces caused by pounding. For such analyses, nonlinear, prismatic beam–column elements are used and the effects of pounding are expressed in terms of changes in rotational ductility factors of the building elements. The local effects of pounding on the collision shear walls are investigated using a detailed nonlinear finite element model of the shear walls and results are expressed in terms of induced stresses. It is found that pounding will cause instantaneous acceleration pulses in the colliding buildings and will somewhat increase ductility demands in the members of the top floor, but all within tolerable limits. At the same time the collision walls will suffer repairable local damage at the points of contact, but will effectively protect both buildings from collapse, which could occur if columns were in the place of the walls. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On poundings of a seismically isolated building with adjacent structures during strong earthquakes

This paper presents selected indicative results from an extensive parametric investigation that has been performed in order to assess the effects of potential earthquake‐induced poundings on the overall dynamic response of seismically isolated buildings. In particular, a seismically isolated building and its adjacent fixed‐supported buildings are subjected to various earthquake excitations that induce structural impact among the buildings in series. The results indicate that the seismically isolated building may hit against the adjacent buildings at the upper floor levels before the occurrence of any pounding at the isolation level with the surrounding moat wall. The severity of the impact depends on the dynamic properties of the adjacent buildings, in combination with the earthquake characteristics. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A phenomenological contact‐element model considering slight non‐uniform contact for pounding analysis of highway bridges under seismic excitations

Impact stiffness is an important parameter of the contact‐element models for the analysis and prediction of the pounding responses of highway bridges subjected to seismic excitations. This paper presents a pounding experiment to investigate the inconsistencies between the theoretical and experimental values of the impact stiffness both for the linear impact model and Kelvin impact model presented in literature. The analysis of the impact acceleration and acoustic emission signals indicates that accelerometer performance and the non‐uniform pounding are two important factors that affect the pounding responses. Based on this observation, a phenomenological contact‐element model is proposed based on the actual contact state of highway bridges during the impact. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed impact model, a numerical simulation is subsequently conducted. A comparison of the results indicates that the proposed impact model can effectively predict the pounding responses of highway bridges. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An efficient methodology for simulating earthquake‐induced 3D pounding of buildings

The current paper presents an efficient methodology for numerically simulating in three dimensions adjacent buildings that may experience pounding during strong earthquakes. In particular, a new approach to the numerical problem of spatial impact modeling that does not require the ‘a priori’ determination of the contact points is presented, taking also into account the geometry at the vicinity of an impact. In the current study, the buildings are simulated as linear multi‐degree‐of‐freedom‐systems, but the methodology can be easily extended to consider nonlinear behavior as well. A software application has been specifically developed to implement the proposed methodology, using modern object‐oriented design and programming. The developed software is utilized in a simple example, and the computed results are compared with the corresponding analysis results obtained from a commercial general‐purpose software application that uses typical contact elements for the simulation of impacts. A discussion follows on the advantages and capabilities of the proposed methodology and the developed software. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

高架简支梁桥非线性碰撞地震反应分析

本文首先简要分析了碰撞引起的建筑物破坏的现象，并对碰撞研究取得的成果、进展作了阐述、本文还对非线性碰撞单元（gap元）的力学特性进行了分析，最后利用NASTRAN大型通用结构分析程序就伸缩缝度、单（双）边碰撞对碰撞地震反应的影响作了定性分析，得出了许多有益的结论。     

Transient responses of girder bridges with vertical poundings under near‐fault vertical earthquake

Previous studies on pounding responses of bridge structures mainly focus on the horizontal pounding between adjacent structures. However, the vertical pounding responses of bridge are rarely studied. The aim of this paper is develop a theoretical approach to investigate the transient behavior of continuous bridge under near‐fault vertical ground motions. The transient behavior of bridge manifests as the earthquake‐induced response wave and pounding‐induced response wave travel throughout bridge. Based on a new continuous model of beam–spring–rod, the theoretical solution of bridge responses involving multiple vertical poundings is derived by the expansion of transient wave functions in a series of eigenfunctions. A new theoretical solving approach of the multiple vertical pounding forces is presented based on the transient internal force on the contact surface of the girder and bearing. The numerical results show that the present method can reasonably capture the propagations of the earthquake‐induced response wave and pounding‐induced response wave. The calculations of pounding force by the present method are convergence of the time‐step size and truncation number of wave modes. As the effect of transient wave is taken into account, the numerical results show several transient phenomena involving the vertical pounding, the high pounding force, the multiple‐pounding phenomenon, the vertical separation of girder from the bearing, the dependence of poundings on earthquake period and the narrow period window of poundings. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pounding of structures modelled as non‐linear impacts of two oscillators

A new formulation is proposed to model pounding between two adjacent structures, with natural periods T₁ and T₂ and damping ratios ζ₁ and ζ₂ under harmonic earthquake excitation, as non‐linear Hertzian impact between two single‐degree‐of‐freedom oscillators. For the case of rigid impacts, a special case of our analytical solution has been given by Davis (‘Pounding of buildings modelled by an impact oscillator’ Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 1992; 21 :253–274) for an oscillator pounding on a stationary barrier. Our analytical predictions for rigid impacts agree qualitatively with our numerical simulations for non‐rigid impacts. When the difference in natural periods between the two oscillators increases, the impact velocity also increases drastically. The impact velocity spectrum is, however, relatively insensitive to the standoff distance. The maximum relative impact velocity of the coupled system can occur at an excitation period T_n^* which is either between those of the two oscillators or less than both of them, depending on the ratios T₁/T₂ and ζ₁/ζ₂. Although the pounding force between two oscillators has been primarily modelled by the Hertz contact law, parametric studies show that the maximum relative impact velocity is not very sensitive to changes in the contact parameters. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Response of seismically isolated buildings considering poundings

Numerical simulations and parametric studies have been used to investigate the influence of potential poundings of seismically isolated buildings with adjacent structures on the effectiveness of seismic isolation. Poundings are assumed to occur at the isolation level between the seismically isolated building and the surrounding moat wall. After assessing some common force‐based impact models, a variation of the linear viscoelastic impact model is proposed to avoid tensile impact forces during detachment, while enabling the consideration of permanent plastic deformations at the vicinity of the impact. A large number of numerical simulations of seismically isolated buildings with different characteristics have been conducted under six earthquake excitations in order to investigate the influence of various design parameters and conditions on the peak floor accelerations and interstorey deflections during poundings. The numerical simulations demonstrate that poundings may substantially increase floor accelerations, especially t the base floor where impacts occur. Higher modes of vibration are excided during poundings, increasing the interstorey deflections, instead of retaining an almost rigid‐body motion of the superstructure, which is aimed with seismic isolation. Impact stiffness seems to affect significantly the acceleration response at the isolation level, while the displacement response is more insensitive to the variation of the impact stiffness. Finally, the results indicate that providing excessive flexibility at the isolation system to minimize the floor accelerations may lead to a building vulnerable to poundings, if the available seismic gap is limited. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A methodology for defining seismic scenario‐structure‐based limit state criteria for rc high‐rise wall buildings using net drift

As a result of population growth and consequent urbanization, the number of high‐rise buildings is rapidly growing worldwide resulting in increased exposure to multiple‐scenario earthquakes and associated risk. The wide range in frequency contents of possible strong ground motions can have an impact on the seismic response, vulnerability and limit states definitions of RC high‐rise wall structures. Motivated by the pressing need to derive more accurate fragility relations to be used in seismic risk assessment and mitigation of such structures, a methodology is proposed to obtain reliable, Seismic Scenario‐Structure‐Based (SSSB) definitions of limit state criteria. A 30‐story wall building, located in a multi‐seismic scenario study region, is utilized to illustrate the methodology. The building is designed following modern codes and then modeled using nonlinear fiber‐based approach. Uncertainty in ground motions is accounted for by the selection of forty real earthquake records representing two seismic scenarios. Seismic scenario‐based building local response at increasing earthquake intensities is mapped using Multi‐Record Incremental Dynamic Analyses (MRIDAs) with a new scalar intensity measure. Net Inter‐Story Drift (NISD) is selected as a global damage measure based on a parametric study involving seven buildings ranging from 20 to 50 stories. This damage measure is used to link local damage events, including shear, to global response under different seismic scenarios. While the study concludes by proposing SSSB limit state criteria for the sample building, the proposed methodology arrives at a reliable definition of limit state criteria for an inventory of RC high‐rise wall buildings under multiple earthquake scenarios. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A probabilistic performance‐based approach for mitigating the seismic pounding risk between adjacent buildings

Existing design procedures for determining the separation distance between adjacent buildings subjected to seismic pounding risk are based on approximations of the buildings' peak relative displacement. These procedures are characterized by unknown safety levels and thus are not suitable for use within a performance‐based earthquake engineering framework. This paper introduces an innovative reliability‐based methodology for the design of the separation distance between adjacent buildings. The proposed methodology, which is naturally integrated into modern performance‐based design procedures, provides the value of the separation distance corresponding to a target probability of pounding during the design life of the buildings. It recasts the inverse reliability problem of the determination of the design separation distance as a zero‐finding problem and involves the use of analytical techniques in order to evaluate the statistics of the dynamic response of the buildings. Both uncertainty in the seismic intensity and record‐to‐record variability are taken into account. The proposed methodology is applied to several different buildings modeled as linear elastic single‐degree‐of‐freedom (SDOF) and multi‐degree‐of‐freedom (MDOF) systems, as well as SDOF nonlinear hysteretic systems. The design separation distances obtained are compared with the corresponding estimates that are based on several response combination rules suggested in the seismic design codes and in the literature. In contrast to current seismic code design procedures, the newly proposed methodology provides consistent safety levels for different building properties and different seismic hazard conditions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non‐linear viscoelastic modelling of earthquake‐induced structural pounding

Past severe earthquakes indicate that structural pounding may cause considerable damage or even lead to collapse of colliding structures if the separation distance between them is not sufficient. Because of its complexity, modelling of impact is an extremely difficult task, however, the precise numerical model of pounding is essential if an accurate structural response is to be simulated. The aim of this paper is to analyse a non‐linear viscoelastic model of collisions which allows more precise simulation of the structural pounding during earthquakes. The effectiveness of the model is verified by comparing the results of numerical analyses with the results of experiments conducted on pounding between different types of structures. The results of the study indicate that, compared to other models, the proposed non‐linear viscoelastic model is the most precise one in simulating the pounding‐involved structural response. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Discussion on ‘relaxation method for pounding action between adjacent buildings at expansion joint’ by H. Takabatake,M. Yasui,Y. Nakagawa and A. Kishida

The paper under discussion presents a detailed study on the reduction of pounding force on buildings due to expansion joints being filled with rubber. From shake table experiments and numerical simulations, the authors of the paper concluded that the rubber can reduce the maximum pounding force and hence the pounding damage to buildings. However, the writers of this short communication observed some significant issues in the experimental results as well as the numerical simulations. These observations are presented and raise questions about the validity of the results and the subsequent conclusions. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reduction of pounding effects in elevated bridges during earthquakes

Pounding of adjacent superstructure segments in elevated bridges during severe earthquakes can result in significant structural damage. The aim of this paper is to analyse several methods of reduction of the negative effects of collisions induced by the seismic wave propagation effect. The analysis is conducted on a detailed three‐dimensional structural component model of an isolated highway bridge. The results show that the influence of pounding on the structural response is significant in the longitudinal direction of the bridge and significantly depends on the gap size between superstructure segments. The smallest response can be obtained for very small gap sizes and for gap sizes large enough to prevent pounding. Further analysis indicates that the bridge behaviour can be effectively improved by placing hard rubber bumpers between segments and by stiff linking the segments one with another. The experimental results show that, for the practical application of such connectors, shock transmission units can be used. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A modified Kelvin impact model for pounding simulation of base-isolated building with adjacent structures

Base isolation can effectively reduce the seismic forces on a superstructure,particularly in low-to medium-rise buildings.However,under strong near-fault ground motions,pounding may occur at the isolation level between the baseisolated building(BIB)and its surrounding retaining walls.To effectively investigate the behavior of the BIB pounding with adjacent structures,after assessing some commonly used impact models,a modified Kelvin impact model is proposed in this paper.Relevant parameters in the modifi...     

橡胶隔震支座建筑结构脉动观测与减震性能分析

通过对两幢结构相同、彼此相邻，而其中一幢采用了橡胶隔震支座减展措施的建筑物进行地脉动观测，对比地基基础和结构上的脉动时程曲线和相应功率谱曲线，利用两幢建筑结构脉动特征的差异分析研究橡胶隔震支座的减震效果。     

Building pounding damage observed in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake

Building pounding damages observed in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake are described in this paper. The extent and severity of pounding damage is presented based on a street survey of Christchurch's central business district. Six damage severity levels and two confidence levels are defined to classify the observed damage. Generally, pounding was observed to be a secondary effect. However, over 6% of the total surveyed buildings were observed to have significant or greater pounding damage. Examples of typical and exceptional pounding damage are identified and discussed. Extensive pounding damage was observed in low‐rise unreinforced masonry buildings that were constructed with no building separation. Modern buildings were also endangered by pounding when building separations were infilled with solid architectural flashings. The damage caused by these flashings was readily preventable. The observed pounding damage is compared to that observed in the September 2010 Darfield earthquake to explore if the damage could have been predicted. It is found that pounding prone buildings can be identified with reasonable accuracy by comparing configurations to characteristics previously noted by researchers. However, detailed pounding damage patterns cannot currently be precisely predicted by these methods. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Probability analysis of seismic pounding of adjacent buildings

The need to investigate the level of seismic pounding risk of buildings is apparent in future building code calibrations. In order to provide further insight into the pounding risk of adjacent buildings, this study develops a numerical simulation approach to estimate the seismic pounding risk of adjacent buildings separated by a minimum code‐specified separation distance during a certain period of time. It has been demonstrated that the period ratio of adjacent buildings is an important parameter that affects the pounding risk of adjacent buildings. However, there is no specific consideration for the period ratio in the related seismic pounding provisions of the 1997 Uniform Building Code. Results also reveal that, for two adjacent buildings, the probability distribution of required distance to avoid seismic pounding fits very well with the type I extreme value distribution. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.