• Wind and Structures
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.47-69
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• 2024

Pounding of structures may result in considerable damages, to the extent of total failure during severe lateral loading events (e.g., earthquakes and wind). With the new generation of tall buildings in densely occupied locations, wind-induced pounding becomes of higher risk due to such structures' large deflections. This paper aims to develop mathematical formulations to determine the maximum pounding force when two adjacent structures come into contact. The study will first investigate wind-induced pounding forces of two equal-height structures with similar dynamic properties. The wind loads will be extracted from the Large Eddy Simulation models and applied to a Finite Element Method model to determine deflections and pounding forces. A Genetic Algorithm is lastly utilized to optimize fitting parameters used to correlate the maximum pounding force to the governing structural parameters. The results of the wind-induced pounding show that structures with a higher natural frequency will produce lower maximum pounding forces than those of the same structure with a lower natural frequency. In addition, taller structures are more susceptible to stronger pounding forces at closer separation distances. It was also found that the complexity of the mathematical formula from optimization depends on achieving a more accurate mapping for the trained database.

• 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.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.155-163
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• 2023

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the coupled effect of SSI and pounding on dynamic responses of unequal height adjacent buildings with insufficiently separation distance subjected to seismic loading. Numerical investigations were conducted to evaluate effect of the pounding coupling SSI on a Reinforced Concrete Frame Structure system constructed on different soil fields. Adjacent buildings with unequal height, including a 9-storey and a 3-storey reinforced concrete structure, were considered in numerical studies. Pounding force response, time-history and root-mean-square (RMS) of displacement and acceleration with different types of soil and separations were presented. The numerical results indicate that insufficient separation could lead to collisions and generate severe pounding force which could result in acceleration and displacement amplifications. SSI has significant influence of the seismic response of the structures, and higher pounding force were induced by floors with stiffer soil. SSI is reasonable neglected for a structure with a dense soil foundation, whereas SSI should be taken into consideration for dynamic analysis, especially for soft soil base.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.463-475
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• 2024

The study aims to investigate the pounding that occurs between the isolator's ring and slider of isolated structures resulting from excessive seismic excitation, while considering soil-structure interaction. The dynamic responses and poundings of structures subjected a series seismic records were comparatively analyzed for three different soil types and fixed-base structures. A series of parametric studies were conducted to thoroughly discuss the effects of the impact displacement ratio, the FPB friction coefficient ratio, and the radius ratio on the structural dynamic response when considering impact and SSI. It was found that the pounding is extremely brief, with an exceptionally large pounding force generated by impact, resulting in significant acceleration pulse. The acceleration and inter-story shear force of the structure experiencing pounding were greater than those without considering pounding. Sudden changes in the inter-story shear force between the first and second floors of the structure were also observed. The dynamic response of structures in soft ground was significantly lower than that of structures in other ground conditions under the same conditions, regardless of the earthquake wave exciting the structure. When the structure is influenced by pulse-type earthquake records, its dynamic response exhibits a trend of first intensifying and then weakening as the equivalent radius ratio and friction coefficient ratio increase. However, it increases with an increase in the pounding displacement ratio, equivalent radius ratio, friction coefficient ratio, and displacement ratio when the structures are subjected to non-pulse-type seismic record.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.2
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• pp.293-304
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• 2021

Structural failure due to seismic pounding between two adjacent buildings is one of the major concerns in the context of structural damage. Pounding between adjacent structures is a commonly observed phenomenon during major earthquakes. When modelling the structural response, stiffness of impact spring elements is considered to be one of the most important parameters when the impact force during collision of adjacent buildings is calculated. Determining valid and realistic stiffness values is essential in numerical simulations of pounding forces between adjacent buildings in order to achieve reasonable results. Several impact model stiffness values have been presented by various researchers to simulate pounding forces between adjacent structures. These values were mathematically calculated or estimated. In this study, a linear spring impact element model is used to simulate the pounding forces between two adjacent structures. An experimental model reported in literature was adopted to investigate the effect of different impact element stiffness k on the force intensity and number of impacts simulated by Finite Element (FE) analysis. Several numerical analyses have been conducted using SAP2000 and the collected results were used for further mathematical evaluations. The results of this study concluded the major factors that may actualise the stiffness value for impact element models. The number of impacts and the maximum impact force were found to be the core concept for finding the optimal range of stiffness values. For the experimental model investigated, the range of optimal stiffness values has also been presented and discussed.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.20 no.5 s.72
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• pp.63-69
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• 2006

An isolated bridge using a laminated rubber bearing provides an elastic support of continuous span and prevents the transmission of excessive seismic force from the substructure of the bridge, which uses a metal bearing, as this permits a relative displacement between the super-and substructure. Hawever, this kind of bridge is caused long periodic, as a result of enlargingtotal thickness of the rubber, since it corresponds to temperature change and increases the horizontal displacement of the superstructure. This paper uses a numerical study to describe the pounding problem between adjacent decks when subjected to a strong earthquake. Furthermore, numerical results are clarified for the buffer rubber used to mitigate the pounding force between adjacent decks.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.229-239
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• 2018

Under strong ground motion, pounding can be caused because of the different dynamic properties between two adjacent buildings. Using different structural systems in two adjacent structures makes a difference in the lateral stiffness and thus changes the pounding force between them. In this paper, the effect of the structural system of adjacent buildings on the amount of force applied by pounding effects has been investigated. Moment resisting frame systems (MRFs), lateral X-bracing system (LBS), shear wall system (SWS) and dual system (DS) have been investigated. Four different cases has been modelled using finite element (FE) method. The number of stories of the two adjacent buildings is different in each case: case 1 with 6 and 4 stories, case 2 with 9 and 6 stories, case 3 with 15 and 6 stories and case 4 with 10 and 10 stories. The structures have been modelled three-dimensionally. Non-linear time history analysis has been done on the structures using the finite element software SAP2000. In order to model pounding effects, the non-linear gap elements have been used.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.193-200
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• 2014

This paper examines the pounding problem between adjacent decks subjected to strong earthquakes. The elastomeric bearings in an isolated bridge reduce the stresses on the superstructure and cushion the impact by transferring smaller seismic forces to the substructure. On the other hand, these bearings also allow large horizontal displacement of the superstructure due to seismic forces. Bridges having various supporting soil conditions and different frequency ratios between adjacent decks are investigated by numerical analysis. In the analysis, decision making is conducted whether the collision took place or not and, the magnitude of pounding force and the duration time of collision are obtained and the results are discussed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.573-593
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• 2014

Pounding between adjacent buildings is a significant challenge in metropolitan areas because buildings of different heights collide during earthquake excitations due to varying dynamic properties and narrow separation gaps. The seismic responses of adjacent buildings of varying height, coupled through soil subjected to earthquake-induced pounding, are evaluated in this paper. The lumped mass model is used to simulate the buildings and soil, while the linear visco-elastic contact force model is used to simulate pounding forces. The results indicate while the taller building is almost unaffected when the shorter building is very short, it suffers more from pounding with increasing height of the shorter building. The shorter building suffers more from the pounding with decreasing height and when its height differs substantially from that of the taller building. The minimum required separation gap to prevent pounding is increased with increasing height of the shorter building until the buildings become almost in-phase. Considering the soil effect; pounding forces are reduced, displacements and story shears are increased after pounding, and also, minimum separation gap required to prevent pounding is increased.

• 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.