• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
• /
• v.2 no.4
• /
• pp.285-291
• /
• 2013

This paper proposes a framework for understanding the energy consumption differences between tall and low-rise buildings. Energy usage data from 706 office buildings in New York illustrates expected correlations from the framework. Notable correlations include: taller buildings tend to use more energy until a plateau at 30~39 floors; tall buildings in Manhattan use 20% more energy than low-rise buildings in Manhattan, while tall buildings outside Manhattan use 4% more energy than low-rise buildings outside Manhattan. Additional correlations are discussed, among which is the trend that the Energy Star program in New York City assigns higher ratings to tall buildings with higher EUIs than low-rise buildings with the same EUI. Since Energy Star is based on regressions of existing buildings, the Energy Star ratings suggest taller buildings have higher EUIs than shorter buildings, which is confirmed by the New York City energy benchmarking data.

• Architectural research
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.17-25
• /
• 2018

Countermeasures against earthquake disasters such as the seismic capacity evaluation and/or retrofit schemes of buildings, especially existing low-rise reinforced concrete buildings, have not been fully performed since Korea had not experienced many destructive earthquakes in the past. However, due to more than 1200 earthquakes with low or moderate intensity in the off-coastal and inland of Korea during the past 20 years, and due to the recent moderate earthquakes in Korea, such as the 2016 Gyeongju Earthquake with M=5.8 and the 2017 Pohang Earthquake with M=5.4, the importance of the future earthquake preparedness measures is highly recognized in Korea. The main objective of this study is to provide the basic information regarding seismic capacities of existing low-rise reinforced concrete buildings in Korea. In this paper, seismic capacities of 14 existing low-rise reinforced concrete public buildings in Korea are evaluated based on the Japanese Standard for Evaluation of Seismic Capacity of Existing Reinforced Concrete Buildings. Seismic capacities between existing buildings in Korea and those in Japan is compared, and the relationship of seismic vulnerability of Korean buildings and Japanese buildings damaged due to severe earthquakes are also discussed. Results indicated that Korean existing low-rise reinforced concrete buildings have a narrow distribution of seismic capacities and they are relatively lower than Japanese buildings, and are also expected to have severe damage under the earthquake intensity level experienced in Japan. It should be noted from the research results that the high ductility in Korean existing low-rise buildings obtained from the Japanese Standard may be overestimated, because most buildings investigated herein have the hoop spacing wider than 30 cm. In the future, the modification of strength and ductility indices in the Japanese Standard to propose the seismic capacity evaluation method of Korean buildings is most needed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
• /
• v.25 no.4_2
• /
• pp.611-619
• /
• 2022

In this study, the seismic performance of low - rise piloti buildings with concentric core (shear wall) position is analysed and reviewed based on KDS 41. The prototype is selected among the constructed low - rise piloti buildings with concentric core designed based on KBC 2005 which was used for many low - rise piloti buildings construction. The seismic performance of the building shows plastic behavior in X-direction and elastic behavior in Y-direction. The inter-story drift is lager than that of concentric core case and is under the maximum allowed drift ratio. The displacement ratio of first story is much lager the that of upper stories, and the frame structure in the first story is evaluated as vulnerable to lateral force. Therefore, low - rise piloti buildings with concentric core need the diminishment of lateral displacement and reinforcement of lateral resistance capacity in seismic design and seismic retrofit.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.88 no.3
• /
• pp.209-220
• /
• 2023

This study investigates the effectiveness of tuned mass dampers (TMDs) in controlling vibrations in low-rise reinforced concrete buildings. It examines both linear and nonlinear behaviors of concrete structures subjected to strong ground motions from the PEER database. The research follows the ASCE 7-16 provisions to model structural nonlinearity. Additionally, the study explores the effect of varying TMD mass ratios on the performance of these systems in real-world conditions. The findings emphasize the importance of accounting for structural nonlinearity in low-rise buildings, highlighting its significant influence on the controlled response under severe seismic excitations. The study suggests including nonlinear analysis in seismic design practices and recommends customizing TMD designs to optimize vibration control. These recommendations have practical implications for enhancing the safety and effectiveness of seismic design practices for low-rise buildings.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.395-402
• /
• 2018

Floor location of adjacent buildings may be different in terms of height elevation, and thus, the slab may hit on the columns of adjacent insufficiently separated buildings during severe ground motions. Such impacts, often referred to as mid-column pounding, can be catastrophic. Substantial pounding damage or even total collapse of structures was often observed in large amount of adjacent low rise buildings. The research on the mid-column pounding between low rise buildings is in urgency need. In present study, the responses of two adjacent low rise buildings with unequal heights and different dynamic properties have been analyzed. Parametric studies have also been conducted to assess the influence of story height difference, gap distance and input direction of ground motion on the effect of structural pounding response. Another emphasis of this study is to analyze the near-fault effect, which is important for the structures located in the near-fault area. The analysis results show that collisions exhibit significant influence on the local shear force response of the column suffering impact. Because of asymmetric configuration of systems, the structural seismic behavior is distinct by varying the incident directions of the ground motions. Results also show that near-fault earthquakes induced ground motions can cause more significant effect on the pounding responses.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.395-405
• /
• 2022

Tornado-induced damages to high-rise buildings and low-rise buildings are quite different in nature. Tornado losses to high-rise buildings are generally associated with building envelope failures while tornado-induced damages to low-rise buildings are usually associated with structural or large component failures such as complete collapses, or roofs being torn off. While studies of tornado-induced structural damages tend to focus mainly on low-rise residential buildings, transmission towers, or nuclear power plants, the current rapid expansion of city centers and development of large-scale building complexes increases the risk of tornadoes impacting tall buildings. It is, therefore, important to determine how tornado-induced load affects tall buildings compared with those based on synoptic boundary layer winds. The present study applies an experimentally simulated tornado wind field to the Commonwealth Advisory Aeronautical Research Council (CAARC) building and estimates and compares its pressure coefficient effects against the Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) flow field. Simulations are performed at the Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment (WindEEE) Dome which is capable of generating both ABL and tornadic winds. A model of the CAARC building at a scale of 1:200 for both ABL and tornado flows was built and equipped with pressure taps. Mean and peak surface pressures for TLV flow are reported and compared with the ABL induced wind for different time-averaging. By following a compatible definition of the pressure coefficients for TLV and ABL fields, the resulting TLV pressure field presents a similar trend to the ABL case. Also, the results show that, for the high-rise building model, the mean and 3-sec peak pressures are larger for the ABL case compared to the TLV case. These results provide a way forward for the code implementation of tornado-induced pressures on high-rise buildings.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
• /
• v.35 no.10
• /
• pp.127-133
• /
• 2019

Damage to high-rise buildings caused by earthquakes is less frequency due to small distribution of high-rise buildings and low transmissibility of seismic motion to high-rise buildings. However, demand for high-rise buildings is increasing for development of construction technology and efficient land use. In addition, if high-rise buildings are constructed on soft ground such as landfill, transmissibility of seismic motion due to long-periodization of seismic waves is likely to increase. Thus, with development of technology, buildings are required to expand range of seismic design such as safety for long-period seismic waves. Therefore, in this study, dynamic experiments were performed to evaluate response characteristics of high-rise buildings according to period characteristics of seismicwaves and time history analysis was performed to verify them.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.383-393
• /
• 2018

In this study, seismic performance of low and medium-rise RC buildings with wide-beam and ribbed-slab were evaluated numerically. Moment resisting systems consisting of moment and dual frame were selected as structural system of the buildings. Sufficiency of moment resisting wide-beam frames designed with high ductility requirements were evaluated. Upon necessity frames were stiffen with shear-walls. The buildings were designed in accordance with the Turkish Earthquake Code (TEC 2007) and were evaluated by using the strain-based nonlinear static method specified in TEC. Second order (P-delta) effects on the lateral load capacity of the buildings were also assessed in the study. The results indicated that the predicted seismic performances were achieved for the low-rise (4-story) building with the high ductility requirements. However, the moment resisting frame with high ductility was not adequate for the medium-rise building. Addition of sufficient amount of shear-walls to the system proved to be efficient way of providing the target performance of structure.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.3 no.4
• /
• pp.279-289
• /
• 2000

The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the necessity of considering wind load combinations even for low-rise buildings. It first discusses the overall quasi-static wind load effects and their combinations to be considered in structural design of low-rise buildings. It was found that the maximum torsional moment closely correlates with the maximum along-wind base shear. It was also found that the instantaneous pressure distribution causing the maximum along-wind base shear was quite similar to that causing the maximum torsional moment, and that this asymmetric pressure pattern simultaneously accompanies considerable across-wind and torsional components. Secondly, the actual wind pressure distributions causing maximum quasi-static internal forces in the structural frames are conditionally sampled and their typical pressure patterns are presented.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.483-503
• /
• 2016

This study aims to evaluate seismic performance of existing low and mid-rise reinforced concrete buildings by comparing their displacement capacities and displacement demands under selected ground motions experienced in Turkey as well as demand spectrum provided in 2007 Turkish Earthquake Code for design earthquake with 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years for soil class Z3. It should be noted that typical residential buildings are designed according to demand spectrum of 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years. Three RC building sets as 2-, 4- and 7-story, are selected to represent reference low-and mid-rise buildings located in the high seismicity region of Turkey. The selected buildings are typical beam-column RC frame buildings with no shear walls. The outcomes of detailed field and archive investigation including approximately 500 real residential RC buildings established building models to reflect existing building stock. Total of 72 3-D building models are constructed from the reference buildings to include the effects of some properties such as structural irregularities, concrete strength, seismic codes, structural deficiencies, transverse reinforcement detailing, and number of story on seismic performance of low and mid-rise RC buildings. Capacity curves of building sets are obtained by nonlinear static analyses conducted in two principal directions, resulting in 144 models. The inelastic dynamic characteristics are represented by "equivalent" Single-Degree-of- Freedom (ESDOF) systems using obtained capacity curves of buildings. Nonlinear time history analysis is used to estimate displacement demands of representative building models idealized with (ESDOF) systems subjected to the selected ground motion records from past earthquakes in Turkey. The results show that the significant number of pre-modern code 4- and 7-story buildings exceeds LS performance level while the modern code 4- and 7-story buildings have better performances. The findings obviously indicate the existence of destructive earthquakes especially for 4- and 7-story buildings. Significant improvements in the performance of the buildings per modern code are also obvious in the study. Almost one third of pre-modern code buildings is exceeding LS level during records in the past earthquakes. This observation also supports the building damages experienced in the past earthquake events in Turkey.