Assessment of seismic pounding hazard for Taipei City

Taipei City, with its high seismicity, soft soil condition, and many tall buildings without proper seismic separation, is vulnerable to seismic pounding destruction similar to that occurred in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. A survey of the seismic separation is performed to reveal the current status and identify the buildings susceptible to pounding damage. Dynamic pounding analyses of model frame structures are also conducted to obtain the story shear amplification. From the computed story shear amplification, the measured gap, and the relative position of the buildings, a damage index is assigned for each building and compared with a proposed damage criterion based on story shear amplification to define its damage level. The conclusion is that pounding mitigation is urgently needed for a large number of existing buildings.