Experimental and analytical studies on tall buildings with a high-level transfer story

Shaking-table tests of three scaled Plexiglas models of tall buildings with a transfer story at story five, seven or nine, respectively, were carried out. The experimental results show that with increasing transfer story level the natural frequencies of the structures show little change and the change of mode shapes is not significant. The maximum elastic responses of acceleration, interstory drift ratio and base shear force might increase or decrease. Elastic and elasto-plastic time history analyses of tall buildings with different levels of transfer story were performed to study the seismic behavior of tall buildings with a high-level transfer story. The analytical results show that for tall buildings with a high-level transfer story the maximum elastic interstory drift ratios become small at the transfer story. With increasing transfer story level, the maximum ratio of base shear force to total weight, and the maximum elastic and elasto-plastic interstory drift ratios, might increase or decrease. Reducing the stiffness below the transfer story will increase the interstory drift ratio. Deformations of the floor slab increase the elastic internal forces of support columns near the transfer story. Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.