Numerical Analysis of Floor to Column Pounding in Series

Numerous studies conducted on the recent and past earthquake incidents shows that, around 40–50% of the failures of the structures is due to the collision between adjacent structures. The out of phase vibration caused by the lateral loads leads to collision, if sufficient separation is not provided. Studies on pounding of two adjacent buildings shows, the more flexible of the two gets affected more. Whereas the studies on 3 buildings arranged in a series shows opposite phenomena, that is the stiffer structure is affected more during pounding. Also, it was observed that the floor of one building hitting column of other building is more critical than the floor-to-floor collision; since it can lead to the brittle failure of the column. This study is focused on the behaviors of buildings under floor to column pounding when arranged in series. 3 MRF buildings arranged in series with different floor height were analyzed using ETABS Software. The effects of pounding depend on building characteristics, separation gap distance, ground motion characteristics and the characteristics of underlying soil.