RESEARCH ON COLLISION OF BEAM-TYPE STRUCTURES BASED ON HERTZ-DAMP MODEL

Collision of structural components is one of the leading reasons which result in structure collapse during earthquakes. Because of the limitations of physical experiment, numerical method becomes an effective strategy in solving collision problem. The paper derived a constraint condition on displacement imposed by collision and established a dynamic equation for general collision system. The presented method, which combined Hertz-damp model with finite element method, can account for the nonlinear stiffness as well as the energy dissipated during collision procedure. A computer program is developed and a numerical example of beam-type structure is provided to verify the method. It is shown that the theory is correct based on the gained time-history of collision load and structural displacement responses. This study provides a useful theoretical basis for collision analyses of beam-type structures.