Effects of constructional tolerances on lateral resistance of steel–concrete composite modular buildings with various connection rigidity

Abstract

This study uses the non-linear static (pushover) analysis to investigate the lateral resistance of mid-rise and high-rise composite modular buildings with out-of-verticality resulting from constructional tolerances. A series of 40 full-scale simulation tests are conducted using a 3-D finite element model. Based on the results, three distinctive failure modes are identified for the multi-storey modular buildings subjected to lateral load. A comparison between the lateral responses of modular buildings with different deviations suggests that the standard constructional tolerances do not largely impair the overall performance of the modular buildings, while the exaggerated constructional tolerances result in average reductions of up to 9% in terms of global stiffness and load capacity. The relative significance of the connection rigidity is also assessed, including the connections within and between the modular units, namely the intra-module and the inter-module connections. It shows that the rotational stiffness of intra-module connections strongly influences global structural performance, while the rotational stiffness of inter-module connections has minor impacts. Moreover, the results indicate that the translational forces at inter-module connections may increase by up to 131% when constructional tolerances are introduced, which should be carefully addressed to facilitate the safety design of such connections.