Study On Seismic Performance Of Reinforced Concrete Frame-Core Tube Structures On High Seismicity Zones

Combining performance-based seismic design philosophy, comparison ofseismic design method about reinforced concrete(RC) frame-core tube structuresbetween China and America and the effect of coupling beam performanceparamaters variation on structural seismic performance are studied in this paper.The main achievements of this paper are as follows:(1) The seismic design procedure in accordance with Chinese andAmerican design guidelines respectively is illustrated by a design example of atypical RC frame-core tube structure locating on8-intensity (0.2g) region, theseismic effect and reinforcement amount and layout of typical components arecompared, the results indicate that: the design seismic actions calculatedfollowing Chinese and American seismic design code respectively are very closeto each other; for the structure designed following American code, the shearresisting capacity of the coupling beams is lower, the amout of transversereinforcement in shear wall boundary element is greater and the confined area islarger than the corresponding values of the structure designed following Chinesedesign code.(2) Elasto-plastic analysis models for RC frame beams and columns, RCshear walls and RC coupling beams in software Perform3D have been proposedand these models can be used for seismic performance evaluation of RC frame-core tube structures. Tested and predicted results of a number of specimens ofRC plane frames, RC columns, RC shear walls and RC coupling beams agreewell, which reveals that the proposed models are precise to capture the nonlinearbehavior of RC components, and have high efficiency in their applications.(3) The elasto-plastic analysis models of the structures designed followingChinese and American design code respectively are constructed. Static anddynamic nonlinear analysis have been carried out, the input of ground motionacceleration records and the structural seismic responses subjected to designrare level earthquake are compared. The analytical results reveal that: theseismic responses of the two structures are very similar before reaching their peak loads respectively, the damage of the two structures becomes differentafter their peak loads in the later period, on account of the variations of theirreinforcement layout and amount. Both structures satisfy the respective seismicdesign code requirements. The yielding mechanism of the two structures is insequences of coupling beams, frame beams, walls and frame columns, which isidentical with the expected seismic design objective. The coupling beams in thestructure designed following American design code yield earlier. The maximumdrift ratio of the structure designed following Chinese design code is larger thanthat of the American project. The maximum deformation demand for thecoupling beams of the structure designed following Chinese design code is notup to its Life Safety(LS) status, but the maximum deformation demand for thecoupling beams of the structure designed following American design code fallsbetween its Life Safety(LS) status and Collapse Prevention(CP) status. Themaximum vertical tensile strain of the longitudinal reinforcement located at theboundary element of the bottom wall piers of two structures is similar and bothhave reached their yielding level respectively.(4) Based on the structure designed in conformity with Chinese design code,the effect of different skeleton curves of the coupling beam on structural seismicperformance has been studied. The demand on bearing capacity and deformationcapacity of the replaceable, energy-dissipating coupling beams to fulfill therapid resilience of the structural function after an earthquake is procured, whichprovides references for the study and selection of related components. Theeffect of the application of light-selfweight floor system and post-tensioned slabwithout floor beams on the seismic performance of a structure is alsoinvestigated.