Separation between buildings to avoid pounding during earthquakes

This paper presents an analytical investigation on the required separations between adjacent buildings to avoid pounding during earthquakes. Five wall buildings, having 3, 6, 10, 15, and 25 storeys, were designed for three different seismic zones in Canada. For each zone, an ensemble of code compatible ground motions was identified. Nonlinear time-step dynamic analyses were performed to determine the separations to avoid pounding between each building pair under each earthquake. It was found that the National Building Code of Canada overestimates the required separations. A simplified spectral difference procedure is proposed for inclusion in future editions of the code. -Authors