Author(s)

Chinwuba Arum, Akinloye Akinkunmi

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Due to excessive displacements of tall buildings occasioned by lateral loads, lateral load resisting systems are usually provided to curtail the load effect. The resistance may be offered by Frame Action, Shear Walls, or combined Walls and Frames (also known as Dual System). In this study, finite element based software, ETABS, was used to generate and analyse three-dimensional building models for the assessment of the relative effectiveness of the various lateral load resisting systems. Three models were used, one each for the three resisting systems. Each model consisted of three samples representing three different building heights of 45 m, 75 m, and 99 m. Wind Design Spreadsheet complying with the appropriate British Standards was used to compute preliminary wind load coefficients using the wind speed values from the relevant wind isopleth map of Nigeria as primary data. Lateral wind load was then applied at floor levels of each of the building samples. Each building sample was subjected to three-dimensional analysis for the determination of both the lateral displacements of storey tops and interstorey drifts. The results of the work showed that the dual system was the most efficient lateral-load resisting system based on deflection criterion, as they yielded the least values for lateral displacements and inter-storey drifts. The moment frame was the least stiff of the resisting systems, yielding the highest values of both the lateral displacement and the inter-storey drift.

Moment Frame, Shear Wall, Dual System, Inter-Storey Drift, Lateral Displacement, Wind Load

Arum, C. and Akinkunmi, A. (2011) Comparison of Wind-Induced Displacement Characteristics of Buildings with Different Lateral Load Resisting Systems. Engineering, 3, 236-247. doi: 10.4236/eng.2011.33028.