Seismic resilient design and negative stiffness-assisted nonlinear isolation system for adjacent non-coaxial buildings linked by corridors

Abstract

Adjacent non-coaxial buildings have been widely built owing to complementary functions, while the non-coaxial layout could cause a great torsion effect and seismic-induced damage. This study proposes a negative stiffness-assisted hybrid isolation system and a corresponding earthquake-resilient design methodology to upgrade the multi-performances of the adjacent non-coaxial buildings and linking corridors. The hybrid isolation system includes synthetic employment of various isolators and negative-stiffness amplification systems comprised of nonlinear viscous dampers for adjacent structures, as well as tailored friction bearing for linking corridors. The mechanical property and model of the adjacent non-coaxial buildings are established, based on which a typical case is introduced. Next, the conception of the earthquake-resilient design method and procedure is elaborated, following which the functionality of each component in the hybrid system is investigated. The advantages of the developed hybrid isolation system and design methodology are illustrated by a systematic parametric analysis and time history analysis for the typical case. The results show that the torsional effect can be a dominant problem in non-coaxial adjacent buildings, which can be solved by the flexibly tailored negative stiffness effect produced by the negative stiffness-assisted isolation system. The collaboration within the proposed hybrid isolation system can produce improved isolating and enhanced nonlinear energy dissipation effects on adjacent buildings, simultaneously limiting the isolation displacement without weakening the isolating effect. The optimized friction sliding bearings effectively reduce the relative torsion concentrated on the linking corridors with a maintained function. The hybrid isolation system and earthquake-resilient design can be adopted as a high-efficiency solution to the non-coaxial linked historic buildings with insufficient seismic resistance.