Preliminary Seismic Assessment of Braced Double Interface Rocking Walls

In recent years, many researchers have focused the attention on damage avoidance design solutions to mitigate the damage on buildings during earthquakes. To this end, rocking systems have been well established. Hybrid walls, i.e. rocking walls with additional energy dissipation, represent a valid lateral force resisting system in seismic regions, due to the limited seismic damage experienced by this system and to the self-centering ability provided by unbounded post-tensioned tendons. These systems accommodate the displacement seismic demand by the development of a single gap opening at the wall base. In recent years, some researchers have investigated the multiple rocking system concept by introducing one or more additional rocking interfaces. Herein, the double rocking concept with bracing in the building region above the second rocking interface is investigated. A case study implementing this concept is considered and the results are compared to a single rocking interface wall structure.