Sustainable approaches to improve the resilience of modular buildings under wind loads

Abstract

Prefabricated volumetric modular building (PVMB) technology is an emerging technology that can make the construction industry walk towards sustainability by reducing the emission of pollutants leading to various environmental impacts. However, the knowledge of the lateral behaviour of PVMBs is limited. This could lead to significant building failure in future, as the climate continues to change, it is expected that building performance will be affected. Thus, this research aims to study the resilience of PVMBs under changing wind loads and identify the most sustainable approach to improve resilience. A 25-storey case-study building was analysed with modifications added to increase its lateral stiffness. Three methods of increasing the resilience were used: (1) increasing the size of structural elements; (2) increasing the inter-component connection stiffness; and (3) introducing discrete diaphragms. The results showed that using chevron bracings of the same section size as X-bracings can maintain the same resilience against the wind while decreasing total bracing steel volume by 32%. Among the analysis cases, structures with concrete cores (CC) have the highest stiffness to withstand the increased wind loads. The building with CC at the centre can withstand a 100% higher serviceability wind speed (i.e. 74 ms−1) than building without modifications (i.e. 37 ms−1). At the same time, the building with CC on either side can withstand a 45% higher wind speed than building without modifications. Further considering the sustainability aspects, the environmental effects of global warming can be reduced by about 160% when fully modular buildings are constructed with recycled steel.