Utilization of Object-Oriented Programming, Design Patterns and Java for Simulating Earthquake-Induced Poundings of Base-Isolated Buildings

Base-isolated buildings experience large horizontal relative displacements during strong earthquakes due to the excessive flexibility that is purposely incorporated, through seismic bearings, at their bases. When the available clearance around a base-isolated building is limited, there is a possibility of the building pounding against the surrounding moat wall or adjacent structures. Considering the nonlinearities involved in this structural impact problem, it is evident that the effects of potential pounding on the overall seismic response of base-isolated buildings during earthquake excitations should be investigated numerically through appropriate simulations. Object-oriented programming (OOP), design patterns (DPs), and the Java programming language have been utilized in order to design and implement a flexible and extendable software application that can be effectively used to perform the necessary numerical simulations and parametric studies of base-isolated buildings that may experience structural poundings during earthquake excitations. The aim of this paper is twofold: (i) to explain the significant advantages of utilizing OOP, DPs, and Java in structural analysis software and (ii) to use the developed software to study earthquake-induced poundings of base-isolated buildings.