QUESTION
I am trying to study seismic pounding between two adjacent RC buildings with a gap element. However, I’m confused about the non-linear stiffness value that I should be taking for the gap element. I am using SAP2000.v.20. Can anyone help me out?
REPLIES
JoshPlummerSE
Have you checked out the “Watch and Learn” on the subject:
This is specifically for a building gap / building pounding situation. And, it does address the stiffness of the element for non-linear analysis. Specifically, it recommends a stiffness between 10 and 100 times greater than the surrounding elements.
SOURCE
https://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=464392
Above is a snippet.