A Peer Reviewed

TECHNICAL JOURNAL Vol 2, No.1, October 2020

Nepal Engineers' Association, Gandaki Province
ISSN : 2676-1416 (Print)
Pp.: 40- 47
COMPARISON OF INTERSTOREY DRIFT IN GENERAL RC
BUILDINGS IN POUNDING AND NO POUNDING CASE
Anand Dev Bhatt
School of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, Pokhara University, Pokhara–30, Kaski, Nepal
E-mail: bhattanand39@gmail.com

Abstract
Inter-storey drift is an important parameter of structural behavior in seismic analysis of buildings.
Pounding effect in building simply means collision between adjacent buildings due to earthquake
load caused by out of phase vibration of adjacent buildings. There is variation in inter-storey drift
of adjacent buildings during pounding case and no pounding case.
The main objective of this research was to compare the inter-storey drift of general adjacent RC
buildings in pounding and no pounding case. For this study two adjacent RC buildings having
same number of stories have been considered. For pounding case analysis there is no gap in
between adjacent buildings and for no pounding case analysis there is sufficient distance between
adjacent buildings.
The model consists of adjacent buildings having 4 and 4 stories but unequal storey height. Both
the buildings have same material & sectional properties. Fast non-linear time history analysis
was performed by using El-centro earthquake data as ground motion. Adjacent buildings having
different overall height were modelled in SAP 2000 v 15 using gap element for pounding case.
Finally, analysis was done and inter-storey drift was compared. It was found that in higher
building inter-storey drift is greater in no pounding case than in pounding case but in adjacent
lower height building the result was reversed. Additionally, it was found that in general residential
RC buildings maximum inter-storey drift occurs in 2nd floor.

Keywords
Inter-storey drift, Pounding, Fast Non-linear Analysis (FNA), RC Building, SAP 2000

Introduction (Jaya and Alandkar, 2016). Inter-storey drift

Drift in building is defined in terms of total ratio (IDR), defined as the relative translational
drift (the total lateral displacement at the displacement between two consecutive floors
top of the building) and inter-storey drift is divided by the storey height.
the difference in lateral deflection occurring Equations defining drift and drift index are,
between two consecutive floor levels. The drift
Total drift of i floor =
th ∆i
index is a simple estimate of the lateral stiffness
Inter-storey drift of i th floor (δ i ) = ∆i − ∆i −1
of the building and is used almost exclusively
to limit damage to nonstructural components Drift Index = deflection/height
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th earthquake there are many types of failures
Total Drift Index of i floor (TDI i ) =  ∆i / H i
and damages that may occur to the building.
Inter-storey Drift Index of i th floor ( IDI i ) =  δ i / hi
Some are due to design errors and others are
Where, due to external factors that have not been taken
h i =storey height of i th floor into account in design such as, pounding effect
H i =total height of i th floor between adjacent structures. Pounding effect
∆ i =total drift of i th floor between adjacent buildings is one of the most
δ i =inter-storey drift of i th floor serious factors affecting the building during the
earthquake.
Pounding is the result of irregular response
of adjacent buildings of different heights and Pounding between adjacent buildings has been
of different dynamic properties (Agrawal and observed during many historical earthquakes
Shrikhande, 2016). It is the phenomenon, in where it is one of the reasons that led to
which two buildings strike due to their lateral significant damage to buildings such as the 2015
movements induced by lateral forces (Noman Gorkha Earthquake (Gautam and Rodrigues,
et. al., 2016). Earthquakes can cause pounding 2018), The Mexico Earthquake – 1985 (Kasai et.
when adjacent buildings have little or no gap al., 1992).
providing separation. When two adjacent Nepal is seismically vulnerable region as it
buildings collide, the resulting change in lies in subduction zone of Indo – Australian
demand loads can lead to catastrophic collapse and Eurasian tectonic plate and such region is
of one or both buildings. prone to moderate to strong ground shaking.
Buildings are major Civil Infrastructures that
may get damaged due to earthquake. The
rapid increase in population, higher land cost
in urban areas and unplanned urbanization has
increases the building construction by adjoining
the buildings at property line, which may causes
pounding effect during earthquake. When no
separation gap is provided in the buildings,
effects of shear are greater. The effect decreases
with the increase in separation gap (Noman et.
al., 2016). Also, impact force between adjacent
buildings decreases as the separation distance
increases (Mooty et. al., 2009).
Figure 1 Drift Measurement
Joint displacement and inter-storey drift are the
Background Review major parameters that may get affected during
Earthquake causes sudden ground motion pounding effect occurring between adjoining
and ground shaking which is transferred from buildings. Also, inter-storey drift is the useful
the ground to the superstructure through engineering response quantity and indicator
foundation (Chopra, 1996). During the of structural performance, relation between
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Nepal Engineers' Association, Gandaki
pounding effect and inter-storey has great
importance during building design.

Research Objective
Inter-storey drift is the indicator of structural
performance which may get affected during
pounding effect. Thus the main objective of this
research is to compare the inter-storey drift of
general adjacent RC buildings in pounding and
no pounding case.
Another objective of this study is to find out
the maximum inter-storey drift in the general
adjacent RC buildings in pounding case and no
pounding case during earthquake.

Methodology
In order to fulfill the objective of this study, the
following Methods have been adopted. Figure 2 Methodology Flowchart

• Two buildings having same plan, same Building Modeling

material property and same section Table 1 Building Modeling Details
property with different storey height was
Building Dimensions and Materials Detail
taken for analysis. Both the buildings have
Plan Area 7.62 m × 10.98 m
same number of stories (4 and 4 stories)
10 ft higher building
but different storey height (10 ft and 9 ft).
Storey Height and 9 ft for lower height
• Buildings were modeled using software
buildings
SAP 2000 v 15 and analysis was done
using Non-linear Time History Analysis Beam Size 300 mm × 400 mm
(Fast Non-linear Analysis) by taking time Column Size 400 mm × 400 mm
history data of El Centro earthquake. Slab Thickness 125 mm
• Pounding and No Pounding cases were Steel Grade Fe415
analyzed. For pounding case analysis there Concrete Grade M20
is no gap in between adjacent buildings
Loading
and for no pounding case analysis there
3 kN/m2 for all floor except
is sufficient distance between adjacent
Live Load top
buildings.
1.5 kN/m2 on terrace
Floor Finishing
1 kN/m2
Load

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 A Peer Reviewed
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11 kN/m of outer wall on
outer peripheral beams
Wall Load
6 kN/m of inner wall on
inner beams
Earthquake
As per IS 1893: 2002
load
Seismic Parameters
Seismic Zone V (Zone Factor =0.36)
Soil Type Medium Soil (Type II Soil)
Response
Reduction 5.0
Factor
Importance
1.0
Factor
Figure 4 Gap Element Modeling of Grid 1-1 of
Finite Element
SAP 2000 v 15 Building Models
Software
Gap has been defined as link element in SAP
Non – Linear Time History
2000. It is a compression – only element required
Analysis Analysis
to assess force of pounding and simulate
Method (Fast Non – Linear Analysis
the effect of pounding. Gap element carries
(FNA))
compression load only; it has zero stiffness
when subjected to tension (CSI, 2011).
A gap element is the element which connects
two adjacent nodes to model the contact. This
is activated when structures come closer and
deactivate when they go far away. A collision
force or pounding force will generate when they
come closer. In SAP modeling each element
is assumed to be composed of six degree of
freedom (DOF) as shown in figure 6. Every
DOF may have linear effective stiffness and
damping properties. The mass contributed by
link or support element is lumped at the joints
i and j and half of the mass is assigned to the
three translational degrees of freedom at each
Figure 3 Common building plan adopted in of the elements joint. Generally the effective
Pokhara Metropolitan City taken for study stiffness of gap element is in the range of 102 to
10 4 times more than stiffness in any connected

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Nepal Engineers' Association, Gandaki
elements. structures, seismic design is performed by the
means of linear analysis either by equivalent
lateral static loading or response spectrum
analysis. But in some cases such as, irregular,
highly ductile, critical or higher modes induced
Figure 5 Gap Element structures, linear analysis are not capable of
estimating maximum response of structures,
for which time – integration scheme is deemed
more appropriate. A complete seismic design
of structures requires non – linear time history
analysis. In this research, time history data of
Figure 6 Link element internal forces and
El-Centro earthquake having peak ground
moments at the joints
acceleration 0.318 g at 2 second is taken.

Figure 8 El – Centro Earthquake, 1940:

Ground Motion Record of 0.318 g (PGA)

Results and Discussion

In this research study adjacent buildings with
same number of stories but different storey
height were analyzed. Gap element has been
used at floor levels of adjacent buildings in SAP
2000 v 15 to simulate pounding effect and time
history analysis was carried out by applying
El-Centro earthquake having peak ground
Figure 7 Building Model a) Pounding Case, acceleration of 0.318 g and duration of 10 sec.
b) No Pounding Case Impact between two buildings occurred due to
Analysis the difference in their fundamental time period
as shown in table 2. The collision induces the
Seismic Data Input
frequent and high extent lateral force for small
Traditionally for most of the common
time duration at points of contact in all storey
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Technical Journal -2020
level. This collision will produce more impact
(more inter-storey drift) on lower height
building as presented below in tabular form
(table 2 and table 3) and graphical form (figure
9 and figure 10).

Fundamental Time Period

Table 2 Fundamental time period of building
models, in seconds
For Building For Building Difference Figure 9 Inter-storey Drift of Grid 1-1 of
having 10' having 9' (T1-T2) Higher Building
Mode

storey height storey height

Similarly, inter-storey drift of grid 1-1 of
(T1) (T2)
adjacent lower height building is presented
1 0.886115 0.77277 0.113345
below:
2 0.853211 0.743505 0.109706
Table 4 Inter-storey Drift of Lower Height
3 0.736625 0.643143 0.093482
Building, in m (Grid 1-1)
Since there is difference in time period of
Pounding Case No Pounding Case
adjacent buildings thus out of phase vibration
Negative X Positive X Negative X Positive X
Floor

occurs between buildings during ground

Direction Direction Direction Direction
shaking and which causes pounding effect.
4 -0.00623 0.008417 -0.006008 0.007934
Inter-storey Drift 3 -0.01376 0.017496 -0.01281 0.013933
Inter-storey drift of grid 1-1 of higher building 2 -0.020428 0.025328 -0.018489 0.019382
is presented below: 1 -0.016644 0.020206 -0.01406 0.014786
Table 3 Inter-storey Drift of Higher Building, 0 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000
in m (Grid 1-1)
Pounding Case No Pounding Case
Negative X Positive X Negative X Positive X
Floor

Direction Direction Direction Direction

4 -0.011316 0.007555 -0.016341 0.015524
3 -0.023236 0.015578 -0.030989 0.028385
2 -0.033588 0.022491 -0.040251 0.036317
1 -0.027681 0.019018 -0.029364 0.026704
0 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 Figure 10 Inter-storey Drift of Grid 1-1 of
Lower Height Building
From these graphs, it can be seen that; in case
of higher building inter-storey drift in no
pounding case is greater than that in pounding
case but in case of lower height building inter-

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Nepal Engineers' Association, Gandaki
storey drift in pounding case is greater than that Therefore, special care should be done to
in no pounding case. The reason behind this is prevent damage of second floor by increasing
that push force generated by higher mass is stiffness of that floor.
greater than that generated by lighter building.
Acknowledgment
Thus higher building pushes the lower building
I express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Govind
during ground motion. The percentage increase
Prasad Lamichhane, Dr. Tek Raj Gyawali,
or decrease in inter-storey drift in pounding
Dr. Hemchandra Chaulagain, Er. Dipendra
case for both building is presented below:
Gautam, Dr. Sushil Khatiwada, Dr. Gokarna
Percentage decrease Percentage increase in
Bahadur Motra, Dr. Rajan Suwal, Dr. Hari Ram
in inter-storey drift for inter-storey drift for
Parajuli for their kind assistance to perform this
Floor

higher building lower height building

research.
Negative X Positive X Negative X Positive X
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