Lateral loading and response for a tall building in the non-seismic doldrums
Brownjohn, James
Date: 1 October 2005
Journal
Engineering Structures
Publisher
Elsevier
Publisher DOI
Abstract
The situation for building design against wind and earthquake effects in Singapore is apparently
unique. There is no seismic design code as there is no local seismicity, yet the effects of significant
regional earthquakes are frequently felt in many high rise buildings in Singapore. Whereas it has
become clear that the strongest ...
The situation for building design against wind and earthquake effects in Singapore is apparently
unique. There is no seismic design code as there is no local seismicity, yet the effects of significant
regional earthquakes are frequently felt in many high rise buildings in Singapore. Whereas it has
become clear that the strongest winds in Singapore originate from storms and squalls, design for
wind by law requires use of an arbitrary design wind speed applied in a British loading code geared
to cyclonic wind systems.
A decade of monitoring of a 280m office has shown that distant strong earthquakes generate
dynamic response typically an order of magnitude greater than due to the strongest winds occurring
during the same period. The effect is greater for high rise apartment blocks and it is becoming clear
that for extreme events with similar return periods, earthquake effects should govern design for
lateral load in terms of dynamic base shears under such conditions.
For the present building control authorities take code requirements to design for accidental
eccentricity to be adequate to cover seismic loads and while there have been moves towards a more
rational local code there remains an open question about the relationship of static and dynamic
effects due to wind for both cyclonic and (thunder)storm winds.
In this paper the evidence concerning the nature of the two forms of loading is presented and the
various existing and potential code provisions examined.
Engineering
Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy
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