Seismic damage assessment of RC buildings subjected to the rotational ground motion records considering soil-structure interaction

The significance of the seismic rotational components have been overlooked in the seismic evaluation of structural behavior. As researchers have measured seismic components more accurately using sensitive rotational velocity sensor, it was observed that the magnitude of rotational components is considerable and could not be neglected. Hence, some parts of seismic damage or failure of structures cannot be exclusively attributed to the translational components. In this regard, this paper used seven accelerograms in which rotational components were measured by advanced sensors. The considered RC buildings which designed as per intermediate moment-resisting frame system were analyzed using OpenSees in nonlinear dynamic domain. In the numerical modeling, lumped plasticity model was used to simulate the behavior of RC component members considering the rotational motions and soil-structure interaction as main parameters. The results of numerous nonlinear time history analyses showed that the contribution of rotational components to the seismic behavior of RC frames is considerable and should be included in the seismic design codes.