Determination of required separation distances between adjacent reinforced concrete buildings with different floor levels

This study aims to investigate the minimum required seismic gap distance based on the avoidance of shear failure for reinforced concrete (RC) buildings with potential floor-to-column pounding. 20 different adjacent building models reflecting low and mid-rise buildings were created. Dynamic analyses were performed selecting 11 earthquake record pairs compatible with the 2018 Turkish Building Earthquake Code (TBEC-2018). Two different cases were taken into account to determine the minimum required seismic gap distance. In the first case (named as Case-1), the gap distances between neighboring buildings were determined to avoid collisions during each acceleration record. The required distances calculated from the analyses were compared with the minimum seismic gap requirements of the TBEC-2018. The outcomes indicate that the α coefficient recommended in TBEC-2018 for adjacent buildings with a potential floor-to-column pounding is sufficient for adjacent buildings with a period ratio of 1 to 1.5. Then the gap distances in the first case were reduced by an iterative process to determine the distance at which the shear demand equals to the shear strength (named as Case-2). The calculated gap distances to prevent shear failure (Case-2) are approximately 6% to 19% lower than the distances determined for avoidance of pounding (Case-1).