Influential structural parameters of pounding between buildings during earthquakes

International audienceThis article studies the sensitivity of the response of pounding buildings with respect to structural and earthquake excitation parameters. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis is carried out by means of Monte Carlo simulations of adjacent single degree of freedom impacting oscillators. This sensitivity analysis, performed with Sobol''s method, computes sensitivity indexes which provide a consistent measure of the relative importance of parameters such as the dimensionless main excitation frequency, the mass and frequency ratios of the structures and the coefficient of restitution. Moreover, the influence of nonlinear behaviour of the impacting structures is also considered. The consequences of pounding, on the structures themselves, are analyzed in terms of maximum force and nonlinear demand amplification compared to the case without pounding