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.