Analysis For Pounding Of Adjacent Single-storey Frame Structures With Unequal Height Subjected To Ground Motions

It has been shown that by a large number of investigations of earthquake damage to structures, pounding is an important factor resulting in non-structural and structural damages, or even collapse of structure. Adjacent buildings is sensitive to pounding damages due to either the difference of dynamic characteristics between the neighboring structures or the effects of asynchronous earthquake when subjected to strong earthquake excitations. Hence, it is significant to study structural pounding to ensure seismic safety of adjacent structures. This dissertation investigates the pounding mechanism by using the explicit nonlinear finite element approach and the simplified impact model approach. The main contents include:1. A brief outline of theoretical analysis methods of collisions is proposed. The stereomechanical approach and the contact element approach used to model dynamic impact problem are introduced and the advantages and disadvantages of various methods are discussed. The explicit finite element software used for solution of pounding problem is also introduced.2. Based on the refining of finite element model of two adjacent structures of unequal heights, it investigates the pounding mechanism and the effects of earthquake-induced collisions on the dynamic responses of the structures, such as the acceleration response, displacement response, velocity response, stress and pounding force.3. The single-degree-of-freedom system collision model is selected to study the influence of the structural position, gap size, the peak acceleration of ground motion and near-fault ground motions on collision responses of structures.