• 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.

• 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.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.

• 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.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.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.113-136
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• 2009

The seismic induced interaction between multistory structures with unequal story heights (inter-story pounding) is studied taking into account the local response of the exterior beam-column joints. Although several parameters that influence the structural pounding have been studied sofar, the role of the joints local inelastic behaviour has not been yet investigated in the literature as key parameter for the pounding problem. Moreover, the influence of the infill panels as an additional parameter for the local damage effect of the joints on the inter-story pounding phenomenon is examined. Thirty six interaction cases between a multistory frame structure and an adjacent shorter and stiffer structure are studied for two different seismic excitations. The results are focused: (a) on the local response of the critical external column of the multistory structure that suffers the hit from the slab of the adjacent shorter structure, and (b) on the local response of the exterior beam-column joints of the multistory structure. Results of this investigation demonstrate that the possible local inelastic response of the exterior joints may be in some cases beneficial for the seismic behaviour of the critical column that suffers the impact. However, in all the examined cases the developing demands for deformation of the exterior joints are substantially increased and severe damages can be observed due to the pounding effect. The presence of the masonry infill panels has also been proved as an important parameter for the response of the exterior beam-column joints and thus for the safety of the building. Nevertheless, in all the examined inter-story pounding cases the presence of the infills was not enough for the total amelioration of the excessive demands for shear and ductility of the column that suffers the impact.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.301-310
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• 2016

There are differences in seismic behavior between non-skewed bridges and skewed bridges due to in-plane rotations caused by pounding between the skewed deck and its abutments during strong earthquake. Many advances have been made in developing design codes and guidelines for dynamic analyses of non-skewed bridges. However, there remain significant uncertainties with regard to the structural response of skewed bridges caused by unusual seismic response characteristics. The purpose of this study is performing non-linear time history analysis of the bridges using abutment-soil interaction model considering pounding between the skewed deck and its abutments, and analyzing global seismic behavior characteristics of the skewed bridges to assess the possibility of unseating. Refined bridge model with abutment back fill, shear key and elastomeric bearing was developed using non-linear spring element. In order to evaluate the amplification of longitudinal and transverse displacement response, non-linear time history analysis was performed for single span bridges. Far-fault and near-fault ground motions were used as input ground motions. According to each parameter, seismic behavior of skewed bridges was evaluated.

• 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.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.55-70
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• 2021

In urban cities, buildings were built in the neighborhood, these buildings influence each other through structure-soilstructure interaction (SSSI) and seismic pounding due to limited separation distance in-between. Generally, the effects of the interaction between soil and structure are disregarded during seismic design and analysis of superstructure. However, the system of soil-base adversely changes structural behavior and response demands. Thus, the vibration characteristics plus the seismic response of a building are not able to be independent of those in adjacent buildings. The interaction between structure, soil, and structure investigates the action of the attendance of adjacent buildings to the others by the interaction effect of the sub-soil under dynamic disturbances. The main purpose of this research is to analyze the effects of SSSI and seismic pounding on the behavior of adjacent buildings. The response of a single structure or two adjacent structures with shallow raft base lying on soft soil are studied. Three dimensions finite element models are developed to investigate the effects of pounding; gap distance; conditions of soil; stories number; a mass of adjacent building and ground excitation frequency on the seismic responses and vibration characteristics of the structures. The variation in the story displacement, story shear, and story moment responses demands are studied to evaluate the presence effect of the adjacent buildings. Numerical results acquired using conditions of soil models are compared with the condition of fixed support and adjacent building models to a single building model. The peak responses of story displacement, story moment, and story shear are studied.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.75-84
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• 2014

When adjacent tall buildings experience earthquake excitation, structural pounding may happen. In order to mitigate seismic pounding damage to adjacent structures, many studies have been done to date. Tuned mass dampers (TMD) are widely used for reduction of dynamic responses of building structures subjected to earthquake excitations. If a TMD is shared between adjacent buildings and it shows good control performance, it will be effective and economic means to reduce seismic responses of adjacent structures. In this study, control performance of a shared tuned mass damper (STMD) for seismic response reduction of adjacent buildings has been evaluated. For this purpose, two 8-story example buildings were used and multi-objective genetic algorithms has been employed for optimal design of the stiffness and damping parameters of the STMD. Based on numerical analyses, it has been shown that a STMD can effectively control dynamic responses and reduce the effect of pounding between adjacent buildings subjected to earthquake excitations in comparison with a traditional TMD.