Performance-Based Seismic Evaluation of Wuhan Center

This paper discusses the analysis procedure adopted for the performance evaluation of Wuhan Center in Wuhan City, China. The 88-story, 438-meter tower will become the tallest building in central area China upon completion. The selected structural system consists of a composite concrete core, five exterior belt trusses, three sets of steel outriggers and 16 concrete filled steel pipe super columns. Given the scale and importance of this building, a rather sophisticated evaluation of seismic performance during a severe earthquake (2% probability in 50 years or 2475-year return period) was performed. Two synthetic and five recorded ground motions were selected for the nonlinear time-history analysis. These ground motions were scaled to meet China Seismic Code provisions BG50011-2010. The performance levels for immediate occupancy, life safety and collapse prevention were set based on ASCE 41-06, "Seismic Rehabilitation of Existing Buildings" (2006). Complex 3-D computer models with geometric and material nonlinearities were generated for nonlinear dynamic time-history analyses. The detailed performance assessments of main structural elements such as coupling beams, core walls, super columns, outriggers and belt-trusses are presented in this paper.