Use of viscoelastic links for seismic pounding mitigation under random input

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of viscoelastic links between two adjacent buildings for pounding mitigation under white-noise seismic input.

Design/methodology/approach

A formulation is first extracted for the effective modal damping ratios of the system. Then, two single DOF linear buildings connected by viscoelastic links are considered with both classical and non-classical damping schemes. The inelastic behavior is also taken into account by using equivalent natural frequencies and damping ratios of the buildings. The effect of ground dominant frequency and damping on the displacement response is also investigated by using Kanai‒Tajimi filtered white noise as the random input.

Findings

The difference between classical and non-classical damping is shown to be less than 20 percent, implying the permission in using the simpler classical damping scheme. Finally, the problem is extended to two-storey buildings, where using viscoelastic links only at the top story level of the buildings is shown to be sufficient for controlling individual, as well as relative, motions of the structures.

Originality/value

Results demonstrate that the use of link with a moderate stiffness may reduce the stiffer building displacement up to approximately 20 percent in comparison to the free displacement, while the seismic pounding of the adjacent buildings is effectively controlled. Further, an upper limit of link stiffness is obtained for preventing the increase in the stiffer building displacement, which may be exceeded by the minimum link stiffness necessary for pounding prevention if small gap size exists.

Citation

Ahmadi Taleshian, H., Mirzagoltabar Roshan, A. and Vaseghi Amiri, J. (2020), "Use of viscoelastic links for seismic pounding mitigation under random input", International Journal of Structural Integrity, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 471-496. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSI-06-2019-0055