Abstract: The earthquake-induced pounding between closely spaced structures can lead to structural damage. Because a structural pounding is a complicated nonlinear problem, in order to investigate the response of structures involving the pounding, it is important to select a reasonable impact analytical model in the pounding analysis. In this paper, the review for impact analytical models and methods for structural poundings is firstly performed. And then, an improvement on the Kelvin model is proposed to remedy the drawbacks of the Kelvin model; the determination of the relevant parameter in this modified Kelvin model is theoretically derived. Finally, through a numerical experiment, the correctness of the modified Kelvin model is verified, and reliable results can be obtained by using the modified Kelvin model in the analysis of structural poundings.