Building damage due to structural pounding during earthquakes

Earthquake-induced pounding between adjacent buildings has been identified as one of the reasons for substantial damage or even total collapse of colliding structures. A major reason leading to interactions in buildings results from the differences in their dynamic parameters and also from insufficient distance between the structures. Although the research on structural pounding has been much advanced, the studies have mainly been conducted for concrete structures. The aim of this paper is to show the results of the non-linear numerical analysis focuses on damage due to pounding between two steel buildings under earthquake excitation. The numerical analysis has been performed using models of steel asymmetric structures with different number of storeys which makes them vibrate out-of-phase. Pounding between buildings has been controlled using three-dimensional gap-friction elements which become active when contact is detected. In order to identify the dynamic characteristics of analyzed structures, the modal analysis has been first conducted. Then, the detailed non-linear dynamic analysis of colliding structures has been performed. The acceleration time histories of the El Centro earthquake have been used in the numerical analysis. The results of the study clearly indicate that pounding may substantially influence the response of steel buildings intensifying their damage during earthquakes.