Assessment of the separation necessary to prevent seismic pounding between linear structural systems

This study examines the accuracy of the Double Difference Combination (DDC) rule (also known simply as the CQC rule) in predicting the separation necessary to prevent seismic pounding between linear structural systems. Seismic excitations were modeled as modulated and filtered modulated Gaussian white noise random processes, and adjacent structures were modeled as 5%-damped SDOF systems having a wide range of values of natural periods. Results obtained through Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the accuracy of the DDC rule depends not only on the ratio of the natural periods of the structures, but also on the relationship between the values of the natural periods and the value of the period associated with the main frequency of the excitation.