Seismic Response of Structures Subjected to Pounding under Mainshock-Aftershock Sequences

Abstract:

During earthquakes, structures can collide with each other due to provision of very small or no gap between them. This collision can cause massive amount of damage and it can be a very critical issue for structures which get subjected to mainshock-aftershock sequence of significant magnitude. In the usual design practice of building structures, neither pounding nor aftershocks are considered. Therefore, in the current study, a detailed investigation of structures which can be commonly found in Karachi is performed when they are subjected to pounding under mainshock-aftershock sequences. To this end, a FEM model was developed and processed through nonlinear time-history analysis under natural and artificial mainshock-aftershock sequences. It was found that pounding under aftershocks can increase story shears up to 2.18 times and story drifts up to 1.46 times that in the absence of pounding. Results of this study also showed that during pounding under aftershock, structure is still subjected to similar amount of force as in mainshock, however it is already in a damaged state due to mainshock.

• Periodical: Construction Technologies and Architecture (Volume 17)
• Pages: 165-171
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/p-aIr6rh
• Online since: April 2025
• Authors: Qazi Muneeb Alam*, Aslam Faqeer Mohammad, Syed Salman Mobeen
• Keywords: Finite Element Modeling, Mainshock-Aftershock Sequence, Story Drift, Story Shear, Structural Pounding

References

[1] Brown, T. and A. Elshaer, Pounding of structures at proximity: A state-of-the-art review. Journal of Building Engineering, 2022. 48: p.103991.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jobe.2022.103991

[2] Nadeem, K. and A.F. Mohammad, SEISMIC VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT OF EXISTING RC STRUCTURES SUBJECTED TO MULTIPLE EARTHQUAKES. International Journal, 2021. 38(4-2021).

[3] Reasenberg, P.A., C.D. Poland, and D. Engineers, Earthquake Aftershocks—Entering Damaged Buildings. 1999.

[4] Efraimiadou, S., G. Hatzigeorgiou, and D. Beskos. Structural pounding between adjacent buildings: the effects of different structures configurations and multiple earthquakes. in Proceedings of the 15th world conference on earthquake engineering, Lisbon, Portugal. 2012.

DOI: 10.1002/eqe.2284

[5] Mohamed Nazri, F., et al., Probabilistic evaluation of structural pounding between adjacent buildings subjected to repeated seismic excitations. Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, 2019. 44: pp.4931-4945.

DOI: 10.1007/s13369-018-3666-4

[6] Cole, G., R. Dhakal, and N. Chouw, Building Pounding Damage Observed in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake Christchurch Earthquake. Earthquake Engng Struct Dy, 2011(2012): p.41.

DOI: 10.1002/eqe.1164

[7] Mate, N.U., S. Bakre, and O. Jaiswal, Seismic pounding of adjacent linear elastic buildings with various contact mechanisms for impact simulation. 2015.

[8] Wada, A., Y. Shinozuka, and N. Noriyoshi, Collapse of building with expansion joints through collision caused by earthquake motion. 1984.