Pounding force response spectrum for near-field and far-field earthquakes

Inadequate separation distance between neighboring buildings with out-of-phase responsewould increase the probability of pounding during an earthquake and may cause severe damages to thestructures. a rational estimation of the maximum impact force would help us to control the extent ofdamages in different structures. as a practical tool, the pounding force response spectrum, which showsthe value of maximum impact force as a function of the structural vibration periods, is considered in thispaper. it is well-known that strong ground motion in the near-field area has different characteristics fromfar-field ones. in this paper, pounding force response spectra for elastic structures subjected to near-fieldand far-field ground motions are presented. both of the adjacent buildings were modeled simply as single-degree-of-freedom (sdof) systems and pounding effect has been simulated by applying the nonlinearviscoelastic model. in the analysis, the effect of different parameters, such as mass, damping ratio has beenstudied. the effects of gap distance on maximum pounding force due to near- and far-field earthquakeground motions were investigated comprehensively. as a result, the characteristics of earthquake groundmotions along with the properties of structures should be considered in gap distance controlling betweenadjacent buildings