Random vibration-based investigation of required separation gap between adjacent buildings

Abstract

Due to the imbalanced vibration of the adjacent buildings, the pounding phenomenon occurs as a result of an insufficient gap between them. Providing enough gap between adjacent structures is the most efficient approach to preventing the pounding effect. This paper calculated the required separation gaps between adjacent buildings, including two, four, eight, twelve and twenty stories steel moment-resisting frames, and investigated their related influencing parameters such as time periods, damping ratios, and the number of bays. The linear and nonlinear dynamic time-history analyses under real seismic event records were conducted to calculate the required separation gaps by obtaining relative displacement and velocity functions of two adjacent frames. The results showed that the required separation gap increased when the time periods of adjacent frames were not the same. The resulting separation gaps values of linear and nonlinear analyses were similar only for two and four stories frames. In other frames, the resulting separation gap values of linear analyses surpassed the corresponding nonlinear analyses. Although increasing the damping ratios in adjacent frames causes a decrease in the required separation gaps, the number of bays had no significant effect on them.