Seismic Performance of High-rise Moment-resisting RC Frame Structures with Vertical Setback

High-rise buildings with vertical setback are widely used in practice. From the field investigation of the past earthquakes, it was found that such kind of vertically irregular high-rise building structures easily suffer severe damage during strong earthquakes. This paper presents an extensive study on the earthquake responses of moment-resisting frame structures (MFS) popularly applied in high-rise buildings with vertical setback. Four groups of MFS are designed, including three groups of structures with vertical setback and one group of structures with the lateral stiffness varying along the building height but without vertical setback. The numerical models of the structures are established, and the time history analysis of the structures under different levels of earthquakes is conducted. The earthquake responses of the structures are compared. The influence of the ratio between the horizontal setback dimension and the previous plan dimension, the eccentricity of setback, and the position where the setback occurs on the seismic performance of structures is studied. The rationality of the provisions for the structures with vertical setback specified in the current design codes is checked by the findings from this study.