Structural response of reinforced concrete volumetric building in low seismicity regions

Recent advancement in offsite volumetric construction shows that volumetric buildings (VB) are getting popular among the prefabrication industry. Although volumetric construction has been used to build numerous tall buildings in Singapore and Australia, its structural behavior is not thoroughly researched and published in the literature. Hence, this paper examines the structural response of centric reinforced concrete VBs of 10-story and 25-story through a performance-based design framework using finite element modelling. These VBs are first designed elastically under wind actions, then subject to incremental secant stiffness response spectrum analysis for seismic actions. The Eurocode 8 Malaysian National Annex is used to simulate various ground types according to site natural period. The base shear contribution of RC module to the lateral force-resisting system of VB was found to be significant, and a high ratio of seismic-to-wind demand was expected for VB situated in the low-seismicity region such as Malaysia.