SEISMIC RESPONSE OF TEMPORARY STRUCTURES

An unanchored temporary structure has five modes of response to base e xcitation: rest, slide, rock, slide-rock, and free-flight. This paper is concerned with the conditions under which an unanchored object will respond in these modes and, in a rock mode, the maximum amount of til ting and the probability of toppling. The conditions for the we modes of response are derived based on equations of equilibrium and of motio n. The rocking response and toppling probability are obtained by the M onte Carlo simulation technique by solving the equations governing roc king response numerically and repeatedly using simulated base motion. Details of the derivation and computation are not presented. Toppling probabilities are given graphically for a number of values specifying dimension of the object. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights res erved.