scholarly journals Effective Gap Size Index for Determination of Optimum Separation Distance Preventing Pounding between Buildings during Earthquakes

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 2322
Author(s):  
Seyed Mohammad Khatami ◽  
Hosein Naderpour ◽  
Alireza Mortezaei ◽  
Seyed Mohammad Nazem Razavi ◽  
Natalia Lasowicz ◽  
...  

Seismic excitations may lead to collisions between adjacent civil engineering structures, causing major damage. In this paper, an effective equation for calculating the gap size index is proposed so as to provide the optimum separation distance preventing structural pounding during different earthquakes. Evaluation of the best prediction of the required separation distance between two adjacent buildings was carried out by using the lumped mass multi-degrees of freedom models of structures. A special computer program was used to perform dynamic analyses in order to confirm the accuracy of the proposed formula. For this purpose, several different models of buildings with various properties under different earthquake excitations were analyzed. The results of the study clearly show that the proposed formula for the gap size index (based on vibration periods and damping ratios of buildings) is effective and it allows us to calculate the optimum separation between adjacent structures preventing their pounding during different earthquakes.

2016 ◽  
Vol 713 ◽  
pp. 26-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Sołtysik ◽  
Tomasz Falborski ◽  
Robert Jankowski

Earthquakes are the most unpredictable damaging loads which can affect civil engineering structures. Due to insufficient separation distance between adjacent structures with different dynamic properties, structural collisions may occur during ground motions. Although the research on structural pounding has recently been much advanced, the studies have mainly been conducted for concrete structures. The aim of this paper is to show the results of experimental investigation, focused on dynamic behaviour of closely-separated three models of steel structures which have been subjected to damaging earthquake excitations. The study was performed using three models of steel towers with different dynamic parameters and various distances between the structures. The acceleration time histories of the Kobe and the Northridge earthquakes were applied as the seismic excitation. The unidirectional shaking table, located at the Gdansk University of Technology (Poland), was used in the experimental study. The results have confirmed that collisions may lead to the increase in the structural response, although they may also play a positive role, depending on the size of the separation gap between the structures.


Geosciences ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyed Mohammad Khatami ◽  
Hosein Naderpour ◽  
Seyed Mohammad Nazem Razavi ◽  
Rui Carneiro Barros ◽  
Anna Jakubczyk-Gałczyńska ◽  
...  

One of the possibilities to prevent building pounding between two adjacent structures is to consider appropriate in-between separation distance. Another approach might be focused on controlling the relative displacements during seismic excitations. Although the majority of building codes around the world recommend the use of some equations of various distances between structures to avoid pounding; a lot of reports after earthquakes have obviously shown that safety situation or economic consideration is not always provided due to the collisions between buildings and high cost of land; respectively. The aim of the present paper is to focus the analysis on the properties of structures and conduct an in-depth analysis of available methods to control interstory deflections so as to prevent pounding. For this purpose, a numerical lumped mass model of the five-story building has been considered and its response under different earthquake records has been investigated. Firstly, the influence of the change in structural properties (story stiffness; mass and damping) has been examined. Then the application of tuned mass damper, base isolation and base isolation with rubber bumpers has been considered. The results of comparative analyses clearly indicate that using base isolation, with the addition of bumpers, can be selected as the best method to control building deflections and decrease absolute lateral displacement between two buildings so as to prevent their pounding during earthquakes


Author(s):  
X. Lachenal ◽  
P. M. Weaver ◽  
S. Daynes

Conventional shape-changing engineering structures use discrete parts articulated around a number of linkages. Each part carries the loads, and the articulations provide the degrees of freedom of the system, leading to heavy and complex mechanisms. Consequently, there has been increased interest in morphing structures over the past decade owing to their potential to combine the conflicting requirements of strength, flexibility and low mass. This article presents a novel type of morphing structure capable of large deformations, simply consisting of two pre-stressed flanges joined to introduce two stable configurations. The bistability is analysed through a simple analytical model, predicting the positions of the stable and unstable states for different design parameters and material properties. Good correlation is found between experimental results, finite-element modelling and predictions from the analytical model for one particular example. A wide range of design parameters and material properties is also analytically investigated, yielding a remarkable structure with zero stiffness along the twisting axis.


Author(s):  
Min Mao ◽  
Norman M. Wereley ◽  
Alan L. Browne

Feasibility of a sliding seat utilizing adaptive control of a magnetorheological (MR) energy absorber (MREA) to minimize loads imparted to a payload mass in a ground vehicle for frontal impact speeds as high as 7 m/s (15.7 mph) is investigated. The crash pulse for a given impact speed was assumed to be a rectangular deceleration pulse having a prescribed magnitude and duration. The adaptive control objective is to bring the payload (occupant plus seat) mass to a stop using the available stroke, while simultaneously accommodating changes in impact velocity and occupant mass ranging from a 5th percentile female to a 95th percentile male. The payload is first treated as a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) rigid lumped mass, and two adaptive control algorithms are developed: (1) constant Bingham number control, and (2) constant force control. To explore the effects of occupant compliance on adaptive controller performance, a multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) lumped mass biodynamic occupant model was integrated with the seat mass. The same controllers were used for both the SDOF and MDOF cases based on SDOF controller analysis because the biodynamic degrees of freedom are neither controllable nor observable. The designed adaptive controllers successfully controlled load-stroke profiles to bring payload mass to rest in the available stroke and reduced payload decelerations. Analysis showed extensive coupling between the seat structures and occupant biodynamic response, although minor adjustments to the control gains enabled full use of the available stroke.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 168781401879559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Xiang ◽  
Feng Xiong ◽  
Yuanfeng Shi ◽  
Kaoshan Dai ◽  
Zhibin Ding

Engineering structures usually exhibit time-varying behavior when subjected to strong excitation or due to material deterioration. This behavior is one of the key properties affecting the structural performance. Hence, reasonable description and timely tracking of time-varying characteristics of engineering structures are necessary for their safety assessment and life-cycle management. Due to its powerful ability of approximating functions in the time–frequency domain, wavelet multi-resolution approximation has been widely applied in the field of parameter estimation. Considering that the damage levels of beams and columns are usually different, identification of time-varying structural parameters of frame structure under seismic excitation using wavelet multi-resolution approximation is studied in this article. A time-varying dynamical model including both the translational and rotational degrees of freedom is established so as to estimate the stiffness coefficients of beams and columns separately. By decomposing each time-varying structural parameter using one wavelet multi-resolution approximation, the time-varying parametric identification problem is transformed into a time-invariant non-parametric one. In solving the high number of regressors in the non-parametric regression program, the modified orthogonal forward regression algorithm is proposed for significant term selection and parameter estimation. This work is demonstrated through numerical examples which consider both gradual variation and abrupt changes in the structural parameters.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Rebiai

ABSTRACTIn this investigation, a new simple triangular strain based membrane element with drilling rotation for 2-D structures analysis is proposed. This new numerical model can be used for linear and dynamic analysis. The triangular element is named SBTE and it has three nodes with three degrees of freedom at each node. The displacements field of this element is based on the assumed functions for the various strains satisfying the compatibility equations. This developed element passed both patch and benchmark tests in the case of bending and shear problems. For the dynamic analysis, lumped mass with implicit/explicit time integration are employed. The obtained numerical results using the developed element converge toward the analytical and numerical solutions in both analyses.


2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matheus de B. Vallim ◽  
José M. C. Dos Santos ◽  
Argemiro L. A. Costa

ABSTRACT The transmission of vibrations in motorcycles and their perception by the passengers are fundamental in comfort analysis. Tire nonuniformities can generate self-excitations at the rotational frequency of the wheel and contribute to the ride vibration environment. In this work a multi-body motorcycle model is built to evaluate the ride comfort with respect to tire nonuniformities. The aim is to obtain a multi–degrees-of-freedom dynamic model that includes both the contributions of the motorcycle and tire–wheel assembly structures. This representation allows the tire nonuniformities to predict the vertical force variations on the motorcycle and can be used through a root mean square acceleration evaluation for ride comfort analysis. The motorcycle model proposed is a 10-degrees-of-freedom system, where each tire–wheel is a 4-degrees-of-freedom model. The tire–wheel assemblies include two types of nonuniformities: lumped mass imbalance and radial run-out. Simulations of analytical models are compared with experimental tests.


Author(s):  
Clark J. Radcliffe ◽  
Jon Sticklen

Approaches to engineering design and manufacturing such as integrated design and manufacture and just in time fabrication depend on interaction with and among component supply companies that most often use very diverse technologies. The Internet Engineering Design Agents (i-EDA) software system uses a distributed, component-based, agent methodology that is realized following a strong black box approach to modeling. An individual Design Agent (DA) is a virtual product capable of encapsulating both descriptive and model based information about the product it represents. Hierarchically recursive agents for sub-systems and/or components are linked via a communications network to form larger integrated model systems. A two dimensional bridge system structural model is used as an example to illustrate the distributed assembly of structural models from components registered as DA’s on a communications network. Modular Distributed Modeling (MDM) of engineering structures performs static deflection analysis using traditional, fixed causality, structural stiffness models. This paper presents the methodology required to assemble traditional structural stiffness models provided by internet agents representing structural components. The methodology discussed assembles these component models into the structural stiffness model of an assembly distributed by an agents represent that physical assembly of components. Using this modular distributed modeling method; models of complex assemblies can be built and distributed while hiding the topology and characteristics of their structural subassemblies. The automated, modular, assembly of structural stiffness models will be derived for discrete physical connections. Discrete connections are important to the assembly of components such as truss and shaft structures where the relationship between component displacements involve discrete, matching, degrees of freedom on components to be assembled. Specific examples of discrete assembly of truss bridge component models will be presented.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (21) ◽  
pp. 4681
Author(s):  
Hosein Naderpour ◽  
Payam Danaeifard ◽  
Daniel Burkacki ◽  
Robert Jankowski

During earthquakes, out-of-phase vibrations in adjacent buildings with limited distance may cause pounding between them. In recent years, the use of seismic isolation has expanded considerably as an effective approach to reduce seismic damage. However, the isolated building experiences large displacements during earthquakes, and there is a possibility of collisions with adjacent structures. The research on earthquake-induced pounding of base-isolated buildings has been mainly focused on interactions between low structures. In this paper, the influence of structural pounding on the response of medium-to-high-rise base-isolated buildings is investigated under different ground motions. The analysis has been focused on collisions between two insufficiently separated five-story and eight-story base-isolated and fixed base buildings aligned in three different configurations. The results of the study indicate that structural pounding may significantly increase the response of medium-to-high-rise base-isolated buildings during earthquakes. Moreover, substantial dependence of the structural behavior on the gap size between structures has been observed. The general trend shows the reduction in the pounding-involved response with the increase in the gap size value. The results indicate that the increase in the response of the base-isolated building is larger when the height of the structure is bigger. They also show that larger amplifications of peak accelerations of the upper stories can be expected due to collisions. On the other hand, the amplifications of the story shears have not shown any specific trend for different stories of the analyzed base-isolated building.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 317-343
Author(s):  
F. Kazemi ◽  
M. Miari ◽  
R. Jankowski

AbstractAn insufficient separation distance between adjacent buildings is the main reason for structural pounding during severe earthquakes. The lateral load resistance system, fundamental natural period, mass, and stiffness are important factors having the influence on collisions between two adjacent structures. In this study, 3-, 5- and 9-story adjacent reinforced concrete and steel moment resisting frames (MRFs) were considered to investigate the collision effects and to determine modification factors for new and already existing buildings. For this purpose, incremental dynamic analysis was used to assess the seismic limit state capacity of the structures using a developed algorithm in OpenSees software including two near-field record subsets suggested by FEMA-P695. The results of this paper can help engineers to approximately estimate the performance levels of MRFs due to pounding phenomenon. The results confirm that collisions can lead to the changes in performance levels, which are difficult to be considered during the design process. In addition, the results of the analyses illustrate that providing a fluid viscous damper between adjacent reinforced concrete and steel structures can be effective to eliminate the sudden changes in the lateral force during collision. This approach can be successfully used for retrofitting adjacent structures with insufficient in-between separation distances.


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