Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea ISSN:1229-3059(Print) 2287-2302(Online) 한국전산구조공학회 논문집

This study proposes seismic response analysis technique of a two-mass rack system which sustains heavy loads with frictional behavioral characteristics. In order to deal with the nonlinear frictional characteristics of the mass on the rack system, the equations of motion of the system has been derived and the appropriate numerical simulation technique has been developed. In order to examine the seismic performance of the proposed system, we consider two parameters that are expected to have great influence on the seismic performance of the system. One is the ratio of the two masses of the load and the rack structure, and the other is the friction coefficient between rack and loaded mass. A number of numerical simulations of the seismic response of structures with various natural frequencies for both parameters have been performed in order to investigate the seismic safety of the rack structures. From the simulated results. it is observed that the maximum displacement of the rack system tends to decrease drastically as the natural frequency of the structure increases regardless of the two parameters of mass ratio and friction coefficient. The proposed study provides important reference data to guarantee the seismic safety of the rack system by considering nonlinear frictional behavior of the loaded mass.