Effects of Building Slenderness on the Behaviour of Shear Wall-Frame System Buildings for Various Soil Classes

In this study, the effect of structural slenderness on both linear and non-linear structural behaviour in buildings with reinforced concrete shear-frame systems was examined. For this purpose, 3 building models with square storey plans were created, with equal total building heights and ratios of height to plan size of 0.67, 1.0, and 2.0, respectively. Additionally, the ratio of shear wall areas to storey areas was kept equal in both directions for each model. The 3 building models created were examined under 15 different scenarios, considering 5 different soil classes recommended in the Turkish Building Earthquake Code. Through linear and non-linear structural analyses, the effects of building slenderness on various parameters were compared. It was observed that although the effect of structural slenderness is relatively small on hard soils, it becomes significantly more pronounced with increasing earthquake load as soil conditions worsen. The effect of building slenderness on structural behaviour is particularly crucial, especially concerning relative storey drifts and second order effects. Additionally, from the non-linear analysis results, it was observed that the damage levels in the structural elements decreased as the structure slenderness decreased.