Performance‐based design of tall reinforced concrete ductile core wall systems

The tenets of performance-based design have been around for decades, yet are just recently being applied to the design of high-rise superstructures. Successful projects using a ductile core wall structural system, following a performance-based design methodology, have been implemented by Magnusson Klemencic Associates and can be seen in completed structures around the world. However, provisions often arbitrarily placed in the current prescriptive Building Code (regarding height limits and building response, for example) make it difficult for structural engineers to apply rational engineering methodologies in design of performance-based structures. Instead, engineers must incorporate less-than-ideal design practices, such as requiring redundant dual frame systems on buildings more than 240 feet high or allowing construction compromises in the impractical regulations governing diagonal steel reinforcing of coupling beams. Additionally, the lack of peer review process standards often pit two well-intended opinions against each other, with the building design usually changed per the reviewer's wishes and for the sake of being expeditious. To improve the design and construction process for performance-based tall buildings, among other things, appropriate interpretations of the Building Code should be permitted, and even required, and the scope and authority of peer reviews should be standardized. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.