Abstract

Pounding between neighbouring buildings during earthquakes has been identified as one of the reasons for substantial damage or even total collapse of colliding structures, so it has been the subject of numerous studies in the recent years. A major reason leading to interactions between adjacent, insufficiently separated structures results from the differences in their dynamic properties. The problem is much more complicated for complex arrangements of structures, for example, in the case of collisions between few structures in a row. A number of different methods have been considered to mitigate earthquake-induced structural pounding. One of the techniques is placing between the structures some viscoelastic elements acting as bumpers. Another one is stiff linking the structures which allow the forces to be transmitted between buildings and thus eliminate interactions. The aim of this paper is to show the results of experimental study focused on mitigation of pounding between buildings in complex arrangements by using polymer elements installed between structures. In the study, three steel models with different dynamic parameters and various in-between distances were considered. Additional mass was added at the top of each model so as to obtain different dynamic characteristics of the structures. The unidirectional shaking table, located at the Gdansk University of Technology (Poland), was used to perform the experimental study. Models of steel structures were mounted in a row to the platform of the shaking table. The results of the study indicate that the method of using polymer elements can be an effective pounding mitigation technique in the case of complex arrangement of buildings. It allows us to prevent damaging collisions between adjacent structures during earthquakes. It also improves the structural behaviour leading to the reduction in vibrations under different seismic excitations.

Authors (3)