Pounding of Buildings with Different Adjacent Floor Levels

Abstract

This thesis concerned with the problem of pounding between adjacent buildings with different floor levels, as it leads to damage of buildings, and sometimes total collapse specially in the case of not taking the collision phenomenon into account during the design, also when the two buildings with different floor levels. The study of this phenomenon is particularly important in Egypt, due to the presence of large areas in Cairo, and other cities, where buildings are erected totally adjacent to each other, without very small, or even no distance between them. This is especially evident in the old city districts, where city regulations allow building on 100% of the land area. From previous research a finite element 3-D Model for analysis adjacent buildings under pounding (Moustafa,A.2013) was modified and extended to include the analysis of buildings with different floor levels. The structural behavior of buildings under the effect of pounding is simulated using 3-D finite element analysis of the buildings, while modeling the case of pounding at several points along each floor level, by introducing special gap elements between the 2 buildings at these points. Time-history analysis of several buildings was performed in 3-D modeling using three different time history, under the effect of actual earthquake records scaled according to the Egyptian code of practice specifications for Cairo area. An extensive parametric study is conducted for the determination of the effect of the main factors affecting the pounding behavior of the adjacent buildings with different floor levels, including the effects of v separation distance, floor level and distribution of the structural elements in plan. Special emphasis is placed on the case of zero-gap distance between buildings, due to its wide-spread existence in case of actual buildings built in many Cairo districts. The analysis results were used to develop conclusions and recommendations related to the structural behavior of buildings with floors in the same level and floors in different levels subjected to pounding. Key Words Pounding – adjacent Buildings – Different Floor Levels- Gap Distance – Earthquake – Time History