Review of self-centering rocking systems for earthquake-resistant building structures: State of the art

Rocking structural systems have been proposed as a promising solution for designing resilient building structures. These low-damage systems can prevent significant economic losses associated with repair, demolition, and business downtime following earthquakes. The importance of designing buildings for resilience and rapid recovery has been realized from the impacts of past earthquakes, such as the 2010–2011 Christchurch, 2009 L'Aquila, and 2016–2017 Central Italy earthquakes. Prior research has evaluated the applications of rocking systems in buildings, bridges, and foundations. However, despite the proof of their effectiveness in historical structures and demonstrated efficiency in modern structures through extensive research, rocking structural systems have not been widely used in practice to date. The purpose of this review is two-fold. Firstly, the review is undertaken to provide a concise but comprehensive overview of the research on rocking systems for buildings of different materials, including steel, concrete, masonry, and wood. Secondly, collecting, organizing, and analyzing past research studies aims to probe the literature to determine what challenges exist in adopting rocking systems in industry projects. By identifying unexplored areas, unresolved issues, and remaining challenges, this review recommends topics for future studies in the hope of facilitating greater adoption of self-centering rocking systems in building structures. Some key issues and challenges include the lack of provisions in current seismic design standards as well as remaining concerns related to the behavior of rocking-enabled buildings, such as the possible adverse effect of the impact at the base of rocking columns, amplified demands due to higher mode effects, and deformation compatibility with gravity framing and nonstructural components.