Tying Devices to Mitigate Pounding of Adjacent Building Blocks

Authors

  • M. S. Masmoum Civil Engineering Department, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8779-7400
  • M. S. A. Alama Civil Engineering Department, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Adjacent building blocks separated by thermal expansion joints are vulnerable to pounding during earthquakes. The specified Saudi building code minimum separation may be very large and does not necessarily eliminate pounding forces. This research discusses the feasibility of tying the adjacent building blocks with simple devices to mitigate structural pounding when separated by thermal joints. Six and twelve-story moment resistance frames of intermediate ductility were designed for seismic loads of moderate risk. The seismic response was studied for frames with variable separation distances in three cases related to thermal joint, code minimum separation, required separation to eliminate pounding force, and in a fourth case in which the tying device was used along with thermal separation. A linear elastic model was used to model the assigned gap links between the adjacent building blocks. The tying device was modeled with a tension-only hook element. Four normalized earthquake records were used with inelastic-time history analysis to assess the seismic response of the adjacent building blocks. The proposed tying devices reduced successfully the pounding forces by 40% to 60% for adjacent building blocks with installed thermal separations. Building damage as observed from damage index and the hysteretic response was not influenced by the pounding force, indicating that the tying may be used on existing buildings with thermal separation as a partial mitigation technique to reduce the pounding hazard in such cases. Further improvement on the tying device will increase the mitigation of the pounding hazard.

Keywords:

pounding, expansion joint, minimum separation, tying devices

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

SBC Committee 301, Structural - loading and forces, Saudi Building Code National Committee, 2007

E. Rosenblueth, R. Meli, “The 19875 earthquake: Causes and effects in Mexico City”, Concrete International, Vol. 8, pp. 23–34, 1986

K. Kasai, B. F. Maison, “Building the 1989 pounding damage during Loma Prieta earthquake”, Engineering Structures, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 195–207, 1997 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0141-0296(96)00082-X

V. Jeng, K. Kasai, B. F. Maison, “A spectral difference method to estimate building separations to avoid pounding”, Earthquake Spectra, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 201–223, 1992 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1193/1.1585679

J. Penzien, “Evaluation of building separation distance required to prevent pounding during strong earthquakes”, Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics, Vol. 26, No. 8, pp. 849–858, 1997 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1096-9845(199708)26:8<849::AID-EQE680>3.0.CO;2-M

J. H. Lin, “Separation distance to avoid sesmic pounding of adjacent buildings”, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, Vol. 26, pp. 395–403, 1997 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1096-9845(199703)26:3<395::AID-EQE655>3.0.CO;2-F

R. E. Valles, A. M. Reinhorn, Evaluation, prevention and mitigation of pounding effects in building structures, National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research, 1997

H. P. Hong, S. S. Wang, P. Hong, “Critical building separation distance in reducing pounding risk under earthquake excitation”, Structural Safety, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 287–303, 2003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-4730(02)00080-2

D. Lopez-Garcia, T. T. Soong, “Evaluation of current criteria in predicting the separation necessary to prevent seismic pounding between nonlinear hysteretic structural systems”, Engineering Structures, Vol. 31, No. 5, pp. 1217–1229, 2009 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2009.01.016

R. Jankowski, S. Mahmoud, Earthquake-induced structural pounding, Springer International Publishing, 2015 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16324-6

M. J. Favvata, “Minimum required separation gap for adjacent RC frames with potential inter-story seismic pounding”, Engineering Structures, Vol. 152, pp. 643–659, 2017 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2017.09.025

M. Isteita, K. Porter, “Safe distance between adjacent buildings to avoid pounding in earthquakes”, 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Santiago Chile, January 9-13, 2017

R. Jankowski, S. Mahmoud, “Mitigation of pounding effects”, in: Earthquake-Induced Structural Pounding, Springer International Publishing, pp. 103–132, 2015 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16324-6_5

ASCE/SEI Committee 7, Minimum design loads for buildings and other structures”, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2010

M. Masmoum, S. Alama, “Required seperation to mitigate pounding of adjacent building blocks”, Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, Vol. 8, No. 6, pp. 3565-3569, 2018 DOI: https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.2386

Computers and Structures Inc., CSI Analysis Reference Manual for SAP2000, Etabs, Safe, and CSI Bridge. Computers and Structures Inc., 2016

M. Masmoum, Buildings pounding mitigation using tying device, MSc Thesis, King Abdulaziz University, 2019 (in Arabic)

Downloads

How to Cite

[1]
Masmoum, M.S. and Alama, M.S.A. 2020. Tying Devices to Mitigate Pounding of Adjacent Building Blocks. Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research. 10, 3 (Jun. 2020), 5643–5647. DOI:https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.3502.

Metrics

Abstract Views: 548
PDF Downloads: 502

Metrics Information

Most read articles by the same author(s)