Development and implementation of a biaxial contact element for seismic pounding simulation

Pounding between neighboring structures is a complex phenomenon that can occur under strong seismic excitations. If the gap between adjacent structures is insufficient in order to allow for relative displacement between each other, both structures could impact. Structural damage due to seismic pounding has been one of the major reasons of severe damage to highway bridges in the past. In this study, a new contact element has been developed and implemented in order to simulate biaxial pounding because most of the previous studies have only considered uniaxial pounding. An example presented to demonstrate the application of the proposed contact element shows that deck rotation has significant influence on the seismic pounding induced demands.