Response of concrete buildings with steel shear walls to near- and far-field earthquakes

The research reported in this paper was aimed at studying the effect of higher modes and degrees of freedom on the estimation of displacement, velocity, acceleration and shear forces in reinforced concrete buildings with steel plate shear walls during earthquakes. Modelled building storey displacements were found to be conservatively distributed during far-field earthquakes in low- and mid-rise buildings with elastic behaviour as well as in high-rise buildings with linear and non-linear behaviour. In the case of low- and mid-rise structures, it was found acceptable to apply the base shear induced by the far-field earthquake rather than that of the near-field earthquake. However, for high-rise buildings, it was found that non-conservative results were obtained if far-field base shear was used instead of near-field. On the other hand, the patterns of velocity and acceleration distribution were affected by the higher modes.