Seismic pounding between adjacent buildings of unequal floor height

When the story heights of adjacent buildings are unequal, the inter-floor pounding maybe happen during earthquake. Employing substructures in pounding area, the analytical model of adjacent structures with unequal story height is developed, and the equations of motion considering pounding are derived. Based on analytical model, the inter-floor pounding responses of adjacent buildings with unequal story height are investigated. The corresponding parametrical studies are conducted and influence rules are concluded. The results show that the influences of inter-floor pounding in adjacent buildings on main structures are smaller than those of floor pounding. But the damages on pounding area are quite large. Moreover, the period ratio of structures, the initial gap and the pounding location have remarkable influence on responses of inter-floor pounding.