Materials efficiency in fully modular buildings through rocking isolation with tendon restraint

TY - JOUR

T1 - Materials efficiency in fully modular buildings through rocking isolation with tendon restraint

AU - Jayaweerarathne, Deelaka

AU - Lam, Nelson

AU - Khatiwada, Prashidha

AU - Tsang, Hing Ho

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Institution of Structural Engineers. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

PY - 2026/6

Y1 - 2026/6

N2 - Stacking precast concrete modular units to form structural walls in place of cast in-situ concrete walls is the growing trend in building construction because of incentives to reduce site work. With this form of construction, a low damage approach to seismic design through facilitation of tendon restrained rocking motion can be adopted. As the base of the building is lifted during rocking, the internal force demand on the structural elements within the building (hence consumption of construction materials) can be reduced significantly as the result of rocking isolation. Post-tensioned tendons are used to add to the wind resistance and to control the risks of overturning during rocking. The viability of dissipating energy by tendon restrained rocking in an earthquake has been proven through experimental and numerical investigations. However, the building height must exceed a certain lower limit to justify incorporating rocking isolation in the design, while below the upper limit to exclude wind dominated buildings. No study has been reported in the literature to give any indication of these basic constraints. Moreover, results from parametric analyses aimed at filling in the knowledge gap are reported in this article to inform the extent of material savings derived from rocking isolation as function of the size and geometry of the building. The investigation conducted on fully modular buildings made of structural steel reveals that rocking isolation of 60 m – 100 m tall buildings can achieve more than 40% material savings with the structural members when designed to comply with the Australian, American, or European standards.

AB - Stacking precast concrete modular units to form structural walls in place of cast in-situ concrete walls is the growing trend in building construction because of incentives to reduce site work. With this form of construction, a low damage approach to seismic design through facilitation of tendon restrained rocking motion can be adopted. As the base of the building is lifted during rocking, the internal force demand on the structural elements within the building (hence consumption of construction materials) can be reduced significantly as the result of rocking isolation. Post-tensioned tendons are used to add to the wind resistance and to control the risks of overturning during rocking. The viability of dissipating energy by tendon restrained rocking in an earthquake has been proven through experimental and numerical investigations. However, the building height must exceed a certain lower limit to justify incorporating rocking isolation in the design, while below the upper limit to exclude wind dominated buildings. No study has been reported in the literature to give any indication of these basic constraints. Moreover, results from parametric analyses aimed at filling in the knowledge gap are reported in this article to inform the extent of material savings derived from rocking isolation as function of the size and geometry of the building. The investigation conducted on fully modular buildings made of structural steel reveals that rocking isolation of 60 m – 100 m tall buildings can achieve more than 40% material savings with the structural members when designed to comply with the Australian, American, or European standards.

KW - Material savings

KW - Modular construction

KW - Seismic resilience

KW - Tendon restrained rocking isolation

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105035696523

U2 - 10.1016/j.istruc.2026.111866

DO - 10.1016/j.istruc.2026.111866

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105035696523

SN - 2352-0124

VL - 88

JO - Structures

JF - Structures

IS - 6

M1 - 111866

ER -