Recent Study on Seismic Performance and Response Control of Tall Buildings

As a result of rapid economic growth and urbanization, a huge amount of tall buildings have been constructed in Mainland China in the recent two decades. Tall buildings are the symbols of our industrialized societies and provide us more living and working spaces in the limited land. They have become one of the most important infrastructures in the renewal of our urban environment as well as the creation of new urban area throughout the world. However, tall buildings suffered serious damages during the past earthquakes. Some research and practice work of seismic performance and response control of tall buildings in Mainland China in recent years are introduced here, including the general methodologies for performance-based seismic design of tall buildings, shaking table model tests on complex tall buildings to evaluate the seismic performance of structures and accordingly revise the structural design, and a new type of earthquake resilient shear wall structure with replaceable coupling beams and replaceable foot parts.