Current Issue

A STUDY ON THE CAUSES OF HIGH-RISE BUILDING FAILURE

Dr. Tse-Shan Hsu

President, Institute of Mitigation for Earthquake Shear Banding Disasters

Professor, Feng-Chia University, Taiwan, R.O.C., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Dr. Yu-Chien Wu

Ph.D. Program for Infrastructure Planning and Engineering, 

Feng-Chia University, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Dr. Zong-Lin Wu  

Assistant Professor, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taiwan, R.O.C

Dr. Hsin-Mao Wang

Ph.D. Program for Infrastructure Planning and Engineering, 

Feng-Chia University, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Abstract

In modern metropolitan areas, high-rise buildings have become ubiquitous, and their designs generally comply with existing seismic codes. However, because most current seismic design regulations worldwide are formulated primarily to address ground shaking, these buildings may still collapse or sustain severe damage when shear banding occur during major earthquakes. To address this issue, this study first examines three high-rise buildings in Taipei located within shear bands and shows that their failures can be attributed to ground conditions that meet the criteria for non–earthquake-resistant structures. The analysis then extends to four additional completed high-rise buildings. Although these structures are considered earthquake-resistant by their architects, the findings reveal that they actually meet the criteria for non–earthquake-resistant buildings. Given that high-rise buildings falling under such non-resistant criteria have a high likelihood of collapsing during future major earthquakes, this study recommends that buildings be evaluated before construction to determine whether they satisfy the earthquake-`resistant conditions proposed by the authors.

Keywords: high-rise buildings, seismic design, rupture zones, earthquake-resistant structures.