Seismic performance evaluation of a high-rise building with novel hybrid coupled walls

In recent years, a novel type of hybrid coupled wall (HCW), which consists of reinforced concrete (RC) wall piers and replaceable steel coupling beams (RSCBs), has been proposed for enhancing the seismic resilience of high-rise buildings. This paper presents the assessment of the seismic performance of an 11-story building located in a highly seismic area and designed per modern Chinese codes. The building adopts the frame-shear wall interacting system. For comparison, two cases are considered: one using the novel hybrid coupled walls and another using conventional RC coupled walls (RCW). The dynamic response of the buildings under high intensities of ground motion shaking is obtained from nonlinear dynamic analysis in OpenSees. The seismic performance, expressed in terms of repair cost and time, is assessed based on the FEMA P-58 method. The results indicate that most of the damage is concentrated in the coupling beams and nonstructural components. The use of novel HCWs instead of conventional RCWs results in maximum interstory drifts up to 24.5% lower in the HCW building than the RCW building when subjected to a maximum considered earthquake (MCE) intensity. Novel HCWs result in a reduction of 50.8% and 60.5% in the median building repair cost and time, respectively, under MCE, due to less damage to coupling beams and RC frames and easy replacement of RSCBs after a damaging earthquake. It is also noted that HCWs have limited influence on the peak floor accelerations, and thus the repair cost and time for acceleration-sensitive non-structural components are similar for both the HCW building and the RCW building.