Study on Polymer Elements for Mitigation of Earthquake-Induced Pounding Between Buildings in Complex Arrangements

Abstract

Pounding between neighboring structures during seismic events has been revealed as one of the most commonly observed reasons for severe damage or even total collapse of the adjacent buildings. Therefore, pounding effects have recently become an issue of great interest of many numerical and experimental investigations in many earthquake-prone regions of the world. It has also been observed that the differences in dynamic characteristics is the key reason leading to interaction between colliding, insufficiently separated structures. 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 lot of different approaches have been considered to mitigate earthquake-induced structural pounding. One method is based on placing between the structures some viscoelastic elements acting as bumpers. Another one is stiff linking the structures. It allows the forces to be transmitted between buildings and thus eliminate undesired interactions. The aim of this paper is to present the results of experimental research focused on mitigation of pounding between buildings in complex arrangements by using polymer elements installed between structures. In the present study, three steel models characterized by various dynamic properties and different in-between distances were investigated. Additional masses were mounted at the top of each model in order to obtain different dynamic characteristics. The unidirectional shaking table, available at the Gdansk University of Technology (Poland), was employed to conduct this study. Experimental models were mounted to shaking table platform. The results of the study explicitly show that the approach of using polymer elements can be an effective pounding mitigation technique in the case of complex arrangement of buildings. It may partially or fully prevent from damaging collisions between adjacent buildings during seismic events. It also enhances the dynamic response leading to the reduction in lateral vibrations under different strong ground excitations.