Study on Earthquake-induced Structural Pounding Between Two Adjacent Building Structures with Unequal Heights

Abstract

Structural pounding has been found to have a significant influence on the dynamic behavior of building structures under earthquake excitations. This phenomenon is more probable when the buildings have insufficient separation distance and substantial different dynamic properties. In large cities, it is more common for adjacent buildings to have unequal heights, leading to different demands in the structures’ stories under earthquake-induced pounding. Hence, in this study five different buildings’ configurations with equal or unequal heights and subjected to different ground motions are considered, to study how pounding influences the dynamic behavior of the involved structures. It was found, among other results, that the peak responses tend to suffer amplifications at the stories of the taller building above the height of the shorter building.