Probabilistic Seismic Performance Assessment of Tall Reinforced Concrete Frame-Core Buildings Under Near- and Far-Field Earthquakes

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Mahdi Gharib

Hossein pahlavan

Ali Keyhani

Ali Koosha

Faculty of Civil Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood

10.22067/jfcei.2026.98373.1405

Abstract

As the construction of tall buildings increasingly expands in regions close to seismic faults, accurately assessing the effects of near-field ground motions on their seismic vulnerability has become important. Although numerous studies have investigated the seismic fragility of tall buildings, comparative assessment of tall reinforced concrete frame-core buildings under near-field and far-field earthquakes remains limited, particularly across different damage states. This study aims to probabilistically evaluate and compare the seismic vulnerability of a 35-story reinforced concrete building with a moment-resisting frame and coupled shear walls subjected to near-field and far-field earthquake records. A three-dimensional nonlinear model was developed in Perform-3D, and Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) was conducted using two sets of ground-motion records. The maximum inter-story drift ratio was adopted as the primary engineering demand parameter, and fragility curves were developed for four damage states: slight, moderate, extensive, and complete. The results revealed substantial differences in the seismic response and fragility of the building under the two record sets. The median fragility values for far-field earthquakes were 0.045g, 0.185g, 0.7g, and 2.1g for the four damage states, respectively, whereas the corresponding values for near-field earthquakes were 0.03g, 0.12g, 0.55g, and 1.1g. At the complete damage state, the median fragility under near-field earthquakes decreased by approximately 55%, indicating a substantially higher probability of failure. The findings highlight the importance of considering near-field effects in the probabilistic seismic performance assessment of tall reinforced concrete frame-core buildings.

Keywords

High-rise buildings

Near-field earthquakes

Far-field earthquakes

Seismic fragility curves

Incremental dynamic analysis

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