Comprehensive Review on Seismic Pounding Between Adjacent Buildings and Available Mitigation Measures

Seismic pounding has taken place in several earthquake events since adjacent structures that lack adequate separation distance usually suffer from repetitive, severe collisions. These collisions result in considerable impact forces in addition to acceleration spikes, thus dealing damage to both structural and non-structural elements. So, a meaningful effort has been widely directed towards the investigation of that phenomenon, leading to a considerable number of publications that are related to that field of study. A review of these publications has thus become a matter of interest. Accordingly, this paper mainly aims to present a detailed state-of-the-art review concerned with seismic pounding between adjacent buildings. Firstly, general definitions, types, and causes of seismic pounding are addressed. Later, facts and statistics of historical earthquake incidents that reflect the scale of the threat caused by seismic pounding are clarified. Moreover, the effect of seismic pounding on fixed-base and base-isolated buildings is discussed. Furthermore, the effect of soil-structure interaction is also presented. Additionally, alternative mitigation methods for seismic pounding are presented. Their classification, types, efficiency, and applicability are also discussed. Eventually, different impact analytical models that can be used to simulate seismic pounding in theoretical studies are discussed. By the end of this paper, deficiencies in previous studies are clarified in order to be taken into account throughout future studies.