• 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.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.353-360
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• 2001

An analysis procedure of 2-dimensional bridge dynamics has been developed by using force-deformation model, which simulates the pier motion under biaxial bending due to the bi-directional input seismic excitations. A three-dimensional mechanical model is utilized, which can consider the other major phenomena such as pounding, rotation of the superstructure, abutment stiffness degradation, and motions of the foundation motions. The bi-directional dynamic behaviors of the bridge are then examined by investigating the relative displacements of each oscillator to the ground. It is found that the nonlinearity of the pier due to biaxial bending affects the pier motions, but the global bridge behaviors are greatly governed by the pounding phenomena and stiffness degradation of the abutment-backfill system. Especially, the relative displacement of the abutment system (A2) with movable supports to the ground is increased about 30% due to the abutment stiffness degradation.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.371-390
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• 2010

Historical buildings in seismically active regions are severely damaged by earthquakes, since they certainly were not designed by the original builders to withstand seismic effects. In particular the reports after major ground motions indicate that earthquake-induced pounding between buildings may lead to substantial damage or even collapse of colliding structures. The research on structural pounding during earthquakes has been recently much advanced, although most of the studies are conducted on simplified single degree of freedom systems. In this paper a detailed pounding-involved response analysis of three adjacent structures is performed, concerning the main bodies of the "Quinto Orazio Flacco" school. The construction includes a main masonry building, with an M-shaped plan, and a reinforced concrete building, separated from the masonry one and realized along its free perimeter. By the analysis of the capacity curves obtained by suitable pushover procedures performed separately for each building, it emerges that masonry and reinforced concrete buildings are vulnerable to earthquake-induced structural pounding in the longitudinal direction. In particular, due to the geometric configuration of the school, a special case of impact between the reinforced concrete structure and two parts of the masonry building occurs. In order to evaluate the pounding-involved response of three adjacent structures, in this paper a numerical procedure is proposed, programmed using MATLAB software. Both a non-linear viscoelastic model to simulate impact and an elastic-perfectly plastic approximation of the storey shear force-drift relation are assumed, differently from many commercial softwares which admit just one non-linearity.

• 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.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.173-184
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• 2023

Presently, the general seismic fragility evaluation method for a bridge system composed of member elements with different nonlinear behaviors against strong earthquakes has been to evaluate at the element-level. This study aims to develop a system-level seismic fragility evaluation method that represents a structural system. Because the seismic behavior of bridges is generally divided into transverse and longitudinal directions, this study evaluated the system-level seismic fragility in both directions separately. The element-level seismic fragility evaluation in the longitudinal direction was performed for piers, bridge bearings, pounding, abutments, and unseating. Because pounding, abutment, and unseating do not affect the transverse directional damages, the element-level seismic fragility evaluation was limited to piers and bridge bearings. Seismic analysis using nonlinear models of various structural members was performed using the OpenSEES program. System-level seismic fragility was evaluated assuming that damage between element-levels was serially connected. Pier damage was identified to have a dominant effect on system-level seismic fragility than other element-level damages. In other words, the most vulnerable element-level seismic fragility has the most dominant effect on the system-level seismic fragility.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.509-518
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• 1999

교량거동의 동적 특성과 인접거덩간의 충돌의 영향을 파악하기 위하여 여러 단순보로 이루어진 교량시스템의 교축방향에 대한 거동을 분석하였다. 충돌은 물론 교각의 비선형, 그리고 기초의 병진 및 회전운동을 고려할 수 있는 단순화된 다자유도시스템을 소개하고 이에 상응하는 운동방정식을 유도하여 교량거동을 예측하는 방법을 개발하였다. 개발된 다자유도시스템은 지진하중을 받는 교량시스템의 거동분석에 대한 적절한 정보를 제공할 수 있는 것을 밝혔다. 충돌의 주 영향은 강진시 인접거더간의 상대변위를 감소시키며, 미진 시에는 상대적으로 증가시킴을 밝혔다. 따라서, 강진이 아닌 지진하중을 받는 교량의 거동분석 시에도 이러한 충돌로 인한 영향에 대하여 각별한 주의가 필요하다는 것을 제안한다.

• 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.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.75-86
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• 1999

An analysis model is developed to evaluate the dynamic responses of a bridge system under seismic excitations, in which pounding actions between girders are considered in addition to other phenomena such as nonlinear pier motion, rotational and translational motions of foundations. The model also considers the abutment and restrainers connecting adjacent girders to prevent the unseating failures. Using the developed model, the longitudinal dynamic behaviors of a bridge system are examined for various peak ground accelerations, and the effects of the applied restrainers are investigated. It is found that the restrainers reduce the relative displacement with the shorter clearance length as well as the higher stiffness of the restrainers for moderate excitations. However, in the region with strong excitations the restrainers may yield due to the large relative displacement. Therefore, the extension of support length in addition to restrainers may need to prevent the unseating failure more effectively.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.765-779
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• 2020

Collapse of bridges in recent earthquakes demonstrates the need to deepen the understanding of the behaviour of these structures against seismic actions. This paper presents a highly detailed numerical model of an actual bridge subjected to extreme seismic action which results in its collapse. Normally, nonlinear numerical models have high difficulties to achieve convergence when reinforced concrete is intended to be represented. The main objective of this work is to determine the efficiency of different passive control strategies to prevent the structural collapse of an existing bridge. Metallic dampers and seismic isolation by decoupling the mass were evaluated. The response is evaluated not only in terms of reduction of displacements, but also in increasing of shear force and axial force in key elements, which can be a negative characteristic of the systems studied. It can be concluded that the use of a metallic damper significantly reduces the horizontal displacements and ensures the integrity of the structure from extreme seismic actions. Moreover, the isolation of the deck, which in principle seems to be the most effective solution to protect existing bridges, proves inadequate for the case analysed due to its dynamic characteristics and its particular geometry and an unpredictable type of axial pounding in the columns. This unexpected effect on the isolation system would have been impossible to identify with simplified models.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.357-366
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• 2000

Longitudinal dynamic behaviors of a bridge system under seismic excitations are examined with various magnitudes of peak ground accelerations. The stiffness degradation due to abutment-soil interaction is considered in the bridge model which may play the major role upon the global dynamic characteristics. The idealized mechanical model for the whole ridge system is proposed by adopting the multiple-degree-of-freedom system which can consider components such as pounding phenomena friction at the movable supports rotational and translational motions of foundations and the nonlinear pier motions. The abutment-soil interaction is simulated by utilizing the one degree-of-freedom system with nonlinear spring. The stiffness degradation of the abutment-soil system is found to increase the relative displacement under moderate seismic excitations.