The effect of impact with adjacent structure on seismic behavior of base-isolated buildings with DCFP bearings

Since the isolation bearings undergo large displacements in base-isolated structures, impact with adjacent structures is inevitable. Therefore, in this investigation, the effect of impact on seismic response of isolated structures mounted on double concave friction pendulum (DCFP) bearings subjected to near field ground motions is considered. A non-linear viscoelastic model of collision is used to simulate structural pounding more accurately. 2-, 4- and 8-story base-isolated buildings adjacent to fixed-base structures are modeled and the coupled differential equations of motion related to these isolated systems are solved in the MATLAB environment using the SIMULINK toolbox. The variation of seismic responses such as base shear, displacement in the isolation system and superstructure (top floor) is computed to study the impact condition. Also, the effects of variation of system parameters: isolation period, superstructure period, size of seismic gap between two structures, radius of curvature of the sliding surface and friction coefficient of isolator are contemplated in this study. It is concluded that the normalized base shear, bearing and top floor displacement increase due to impact with adjacent structure. When the distance between two structures decreases, the base shear and displacement increase comparing to no impact condition. Besides, the increase in friction coefficient difference also causes the normalized base shear and displacement in isolation system and superstructure increase in comparison with bi-linear hysteretic behavior of base isolation system. Totally, the comparison of results indicates that the changes in values of friction coefficient have more significant effects on 2-story building than 4- and 8-story buildings.