Inter-storey drift and storey shear forces in rocking isolated buildings

TY - JOUR

T1 - Inter-storey drift and storey shear forces in rocking isolated buildings

AU - Lam, Nelson

AU - Tsang, Hing Ho

AU - Li, Sheng

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Authors

PY - 2025/8

Y1 - 2025/8

N2 - Research into the technology of isolation, or passive energy dissipation, to enable a fully modular building to perform satisfactorily in a destructive earthquake without relying on any form of external support has been reported in the literature. Tendon restrained rocking isolation which this study deals with is one of such innovations. Rocking isolation with tendon restraints serves the purpose of partially relieving the onerous demand on the structural elements and their connections. An important facet in the structural design of a rocking isolated building is in estimating the amount of seismic drift and storey shear that cannot be eliminated completely by the isolation. Recently developed analytical models for giving these predictions have been validated by the authors through shaking table testings. However, full details of the derivation of the predictive relationships have not been presented in any peer reviewed publication. As the design concept is new, structural designers would not have the confidence to apply the new methods in practice when their basis is not fully understood. This article is essentially to provide full details of the derivations of the relevant closed form expressions along with illustration by a case study filling in the knowledge gap. The aim is to enable designers to adapt the newly developed techniques in structural design practice.

AB - Research into the technology of isolation, or passive energy dissipation, to enable a fully modular building to perform satisfactorily in a destructive earthquake without relying on any form of external support has been reported in the literature. Tendon restrained rocking isolation which this study deals with is one of such innovations. Rocking isolation with tendon restraints serves the purpose of partially relieving the onerous demand on the structural elements and their connections. An important facet in the structural design of a rocking isolated building is in estimating the amount of seismic drift and storey shear that cannot be eliminated completely by the isolation. Recently developed analytical models for giving these predictions have been validated by the authors through shaking table testings. However, full details of the derivation of the predictive relationships have not been presented in any peer reviewed publication. As the design concept is new, structural designers would not have the confidence to apply the new methods in practice when their basis is not fully understood. This article is essentially to provide full details of the derivations of the relevant closed form expressions along with illustration by a case study filling in the knowledge gap. The aim is to enable designers to adapt the newly developed techniques in structural design practice.

KW - Inter-storey drift

KW - Modular integrated construction

KW - Rocking isolation

KW - Storey shear

KW - Vertical prestressing

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105006972914

U2 - 10.1016/j.istruc.2025.109274

DO - 10.1016/j.istruc.2025.109274

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105006972914

SN - 2352-0124

VL - 78

JO - Structures

JF - Structures

M1 - 109274

ER -