Design practice for tall buildings in Taiwan

✍ Scribed by Naeim, Farzad ;Lew, Marshall ;Huang, Sampson C. ;Lam, Howard K. ;Carpenter, Lauren D.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 65 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1062-8002
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1794(200005)9:2<107::aid-tal147>3.0.co;2-m

✦ Synopsis

This paper presents a review of the Taiwanese building codes and their relevance to the performance of tall buildings during the 21 September 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake. The 1982 edition of the Taiwanese code as supplemented in 1991 is discussed in more detail, since very few of the buildings subjected to this earthquake were designed in accordance with the more recent 1997 edition of the code. The recommended design lateral forces and procedures in Taiwanese codes appear to be similar to, and sometimes more conservative than, their United States counterparts. However, the construction practice as observed in our evaluation of damaged buildings exhibited a general disregard for the long-established seismic design and detailing principles. It seems that lack of construction supervision and inspection as well as adverse utilization of some loop-holes in the building code significantly contributed to the poor design and construction practice that resulted in some of the most extraordinary tall building failures ever observed.