Perimetral Tube for 37-Story Steel Building

The earthquake design of a 37-story steel building is described. The structural solution is a flexible perimetral tube which resists the seismic effects and conforms to the side-sway limitation imposed by the Venezuelan seismic code. The spatial properties of the perimetral tube were taken into account and analyzed by a mathematical model representing a plane frame image of the three-dimensional structure. The mathematical model is able to evaluate the shear transferred at each floor level to the frames perpendicular to the action, across the corners of the building. An adjustment of the dynamic response of the building in relation to the minimum base shear design imposed by the code was made because no representative earthquake response spectrum has been recorded in Caracas. In order to evaluate the influence of axial deformations and the importance of shear transfer at the corners, comparative analyses with and without shear transfer at the corners and with and without axial deformation of members were made and reviewed.