Critical distance between two irregular adjacent buildings in order to prevent collision during earthquake

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the value of suitable distance due to prevent the impact between two irregular adjacent buildings when earthquake is caused to occur large lateral displacement and damage the elements of buildings. Various separation distances have been experimentally suggested by different earthquake codes and numerically presented by some researchers to avoid pounding between structures. For this purpose, by using a mathematical program based on neural network, the number of stories, the period and height of investigated models, peak ground displacement, velocity and acceleration of earthquake records are defined and the nonlinear lateral displacements of different structures are determined in order to use in the program. Thus, the results of displacements based on all inputs are listed and the minimum critical distance is approximately estimated based on especial regression. A newly developed program based on mathematical equations are applied for determining the lateral displacements of each story. A new mathematical formula is proposed by neural network, which shows the least distance between irregular adjacent buildings. For investigating the accuracy of formula, two different ways are performed and the results of analyses confirm suggested equation.