Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Building Engineering

A hybrid coupled wall system with replaceable steel coupling beams for
high-rise modular buildings
Zhen Wang, Wei Pan *
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Modular construction has been widely adopted for low-to-medium-rise buildings. However, there are concerns
High-rise modular building about the wind and seismic resisting performance of high-rise buildings if adopting the modular approach,
Modular integrated construction
which inhibit the wider adoption of modular construction in most cities where high-rises dominate. This paper
Hybrid coupled wall
aims to develop a novel hybrid coupled wall system for high-rise modular buildings, which uses replaceable
Replaceable steel coupling beam
Earthquake resilience
steel coupling beams and precast concrete walls within modules to replace in-situ concrete or steel cores. The
Seismic performance wall system is expected to improve not only the productivity of modular construction but wind and earth-
Nonlinear dynamic analysis quake resilience of high-rise modular buildings. A nonlinear finite element (FE) model was developed for a 40-
story residential building in Hong Kong using the hybrid coupled wall system. The seismic performance of the
hybrid coupled wall system was assessed according to the results of nonlinear dynamic analysis and is com-
pared with an alternative reinforced-concrete coupled wall system. Results show that the developed FE model
is capable to predict the nonlinear structural performance of the hybrid and reinforced-concrete coupled wall
systems. The two wall systems can provide sufficient seismic resistance for the 40-story building at four inten-
sities of earthquake motions. They have similar seismic responses of wall piers but different seismic responses
of coupling beams. The expected damage is very low for both wall piers and coupling beams of the two cou-
pled wall systems even at very rare earthquake motions. The feasibility of the developed hybrid system was
also examined in terms of wind load resistance. The results indicate that the system has sufficient capacity to
resist the wind load in Hong Kong.

1. Introduction [9,10] compared cyclic behavior between a modular steel building

Modular construction has been widely adopted for low-to-medium-
rise buildings in many countries and regions, proven to be beneficial
in improving construction productivity and site safety and reducing
site labor and resource waste [1–5]. High-rise building is an alterna-
tive solution to remit the conflict between insufficient land resources
and large population in metropolises [6]; modular construction has
arisen to be an effective method to address increasing challenges such
as labor scarcity, aging workforce, and escalating cost in the construc-
tion industry [7]. However, high-rise modular buildings are still rare
[8]. One of the critical barriers is the concern about the structural
performance of high-rise buildings under high wind speed or earth-
quake effects if the modular approach is adopted.
Some previous studies examined the structural performance of
modular buildings under seismic and wind loadings. Annan et al.
(MSB) braced frame and a regular concentrically braced frame accord-
ing to the results of a cyclic loading test. Nonlinear static pushover
analysis and incremental dynamic analysis were conducted to study
seismic and wind responses of low-rise buildings with the MSB braced
frames [11]. A 10-story building was selected to be the case to check
the feasibility of modular buildings under the specified seismic and
wind effects in the American codes [12,13]. The common monolithic
wall system of the modular building was suggested to be replaced by
an innovative wall system using bolted plate connections and added
stiff concrete walls of steel modules to resist earthquake motion and
wind loading [14]. The effects of in-plane diaphragm stiffness and
strength from modules were considered to assess the seismic behavior
of low-rise modular buildings [15]. A case was studied using ETABS
model to explore the feasibility of adopting modular construction for

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: wpan@hku.hk (W. Pan).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101355
Received 23 November 2019; Received in revised form 11 February 2020; Accepted 14 March 2020
Available online 18 March 2020
2352-7102/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Z. Wang and W. Pan
40-story buildings in Hong Kong (HK) which is a typical coastal me-
tropolis encountering high wind pressure [16].
Despite the previous studies, there still exist research gaps about
the structural performance of modular buildings under seismic and
wind effects. First, very rare previous studies investigated the seismic
performance or wind responses of modular buildings of 40 stories or
taller. Second, little research studied the structural performance of
concrete modular buildings although concrete buildings have signifi-
cant advantages in terms of vibration mitigation, acoustic insulation,
and fire safety over steel-framed modular buildings. Third, few innov-
ative structural systems using less or even no monolithic walls were
developed for high-rise modular buildings to ensure enhanced produc-
tivity. Fourth, seismic code is yet to be released for high-rise building
structural design in HK, coupled with a severe lack of knowledge of
seismic design of high-rise modular buildings. Thus, there is a strong
and urgent need to address the structural performance of high-rise
modular buildings under seismic and wind effects.
Earthquake resilience is one of the newest seismic concepts and
emphasizes that seismic target should be developed from avoiding
loss of life and personal injury towards rapid recovery after a strong
earthquake motion [17]. Earthquake resilience is especially important
for populous cites located in the high-intensity seismic zone because
the repair of high-rise buildings is so time-consuming leading to a
long-lasting loss for post-earthquake metropolises [18]. Using replace-
able structural components in the place where is liable to be damaged
is currently one of the common methods to improve earthquake re-
silience of buildings [19,20]. Replaceable steel coupling beam (RSCB)
has attracted more and more interests from researchers and owners
because it has been proven to be a good choice for high-rise buildings
using wall system to resist earthquake motions [21,22]. Similarly, us-
ing RSCB may be an available way to enable high-rise modular build-
ings to be earthquake resilient.
Modular wall systems are becoming popular for modular buildings
in many places in the world [23,24], and researchers have tried to de-
velop novel modular wall systems by adopting new material, technol-
ogy, and/or design concept for modular buildings to provide sufficient
resistance to multi-disasters such as fire, strong earthquake, typhoon,
and blast [2,5,25]. The aim of this paper is to develop a hybrid cou-
pled wall (HCW) system with RSCBs for high-rise modular buildings
of 40 stories or taller. The HCW system utilizes precast concrete walls
within modules to form wall piers, which can enhance construction
productivity thanks to the further streamlined construction processes
and reduced site works. The innovative wall system is compared with
a similar reinforced-concrete coupled wall (RCW) system to bench-
mark the seismic performance of the HCW system. To achieve the
aim, this paper first characterizes the proposed HCW system and the
Fig. 1. The floor plan of the case building (unit: mm).
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Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355
companion RCW system using a 40-story residential building as the
case for study. The paper then develops a finite element (FE) model
for the two coupled wall systems and validates using the available ex-
perimental results in the literature. The paper next conducts nonlinear
dynamic analysis on the two coupled wall systems to obtain their seis-
mic responses. The seismic performance is assessed for the two cou-
pled wall systems according to the results of nonlinear dynamic analy-
sis. The paper last examines the feasibility of the two coupled wall
systems under the wind load effect in HK where the structural design
of high-rise buildings is governed by wind effect. It is notable that the
seismic and wind loadings are separately applied to the FE model ac-
cording to the relevant HK codes.
2. The proposed hybrid coupled wall system for the case
building
2.1. The case building adopting modular construction scheme
HK is a high-rise high-density city due to its large population and
limited developable land resources [6]. Shortage of labor and aging
workforce also challenge the construction industry of HK. Therefore,
the HK government has promoted the use of the modular approach
under the new policy initiative of adopting modular integrated con-
struction (MiC) [26]. In this paper, a modular construction scheme is
proposed for a 40-story residential building with a rectangular plan of
35 m × 14 m (Fig. 1). At each floor level, the two modules at centers
belong to public zones and provide the vertical passages such as ele-
vators and staircases, while the other modules at two sides belong to
private zones and provide living space. All the modules have the uni-
form outer dimension of 6 m × 5 m × 2.75 m. A corridor with the
width of 2 m can connect all the modules at the same story.
As the HK transportation regulation specifies, the width of goods
cannot be more than 2.5 m without special approval or police escort.
The above modules need to be first divided into two sub-modules with
the width of no more than 2.5 m in factory, and then assembled on
the construction site before or after lifting (Fig. 2), which is deter-
mined according to the specified lifting, storage, and casting condi-
tions in site. The two sub-modules have foundational structural ele-
ments such as ceiling slab, floor slab, and structural walls. The inner-
module connection between the two sub-modules adopts the RSCBs
along the strong axis of the case building and the cast-in-site strip
connection between ceiling slabs. The openings below the RSCBs
along the strong axis are used as door or window openings, of which
dimensions can be adjusted according to the architectural design re-
quirements.
Z. Wang and W. Pan Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355

Fig. 2. Assembled concrete module using two sub-modules and inner-module connection (unit: mm).

An assembled concrete module has not only foundational struc-
tural elements but also three types of connecting elements: The first
type of connecting elements includes precast part of corridor slab,
connecting bar between module and corridor slab, and steel beam
segment along the weak axis of the case building (Fig. 2). The type of
connecting elements works together with post-cast part of corridor
slab to connect the semi-precast corridor slab and the modules at the
same story. The second type of connecting elements includes the re-
served slots of structural wall along the weak axis of the case building
and some pre-embedded longitudinal and transverse bars in the slots
(Fig. 3). Some bars are made in site to connect the pre-embedded lon-
gitudinal bars of the adjacent slots and then post-cast concrete is used
to fill the reserved slots, of which the aim is to form the horizontal in-
ter-module connection. The third type of connecting elements in-
cludes longitudinal bars of structural wall (Fig. 2) and pre-embedded
steel sleeves inside structural walls (Fig. 3). The vertical inter-module
connection can be established after the protruding longitudinal bars
are inserted into the corresponding steel sleeves which are subse-
quently grouted. All of the above connections enable a series of sepa-
rated modules integrate into a whole modular building.
2.2. The proposed hybrid coupled wall system with replaceable steel
coupling beams
Due to the regular plan of the case building, the torsion effect un-
der lateral force is not obvious and negligible. Meantime, the length

Fig. 3. Horizontal and vertical inter-module connections in the case building.

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Z. Wang and W. Pan Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355

along the strong axis is 2.5 times that along the weak axis, which indi-
cates that lateral resistance along the strong axis is easy to become
very greater than that along the weak axis (Fig. 1). Thus, this study
only pays attention to the case building's lateral force resistance along
the weak axis.
The proposed HCW system with RSCBs is proposed for the case
building along the weak axis (Fig. 4). The wall piers of the HCW sys-
tem are formed using precast walls of adjoining concrete modules ver-
tically connected with grouted steel sleeves. Each RSCB is divided into
two steel beam segments at both ends and one replaceable shear link
at the center. The shear link has a smaller sectional area than the steel
beam segments, which can ensure that the earthquake damage is only
concentrated on the shear link. The steel beam segments have the one
end inserted into the adjacent precast wall and the other end used to
connect with the shear link through the proposed end plate connec-
tion by Ref. [27]. The end plate connection is designed to utilize a
shear key to resist shear force and high-strength bolts to resist mo-
ment. Because the shear key is allowed to slide along the groove and
the high-strength bolts are easy to be removed, the end plate connec-
tion can ensure the replaceability of the shear link. The two ends of a
RSCB are hidden in the corridor slab to avoid the discontinuity of the
corridor slab due to RSCBs, which can enhance the integration of the
case building. The corridor slab is made up of three parts including
the precast part, hoop made in factory, and post-cast concrete in site.
Fig. 5 presents the RCW system for the case building along the
weak axis. The wall piers are the identical to those of the HCW sys-
tem. RC coupling beams are fully hidden in the corridor slab, which is
made up of the precast and cast-in-situ parts. Those RC coupling

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of the proposed HCW system with RSCBs.

Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of the companion RCW system.

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Z. Wang and W. Pan
beams have the lap-spaced longitudinal bars and the fabricated hoops
in factory and in site.
As the above mentioned, the HCW and RCW systems need far less
post-cast concrete in site than the monolithic wall system, which indi-
cates that the two systems have higher productivity.
For the HCW and RCW systems, the dimensions about the precast
walls of modules have been initially designed considering the eco-
nomical principal of material consumption and the code requirements
including the thickness limit to ensure the out-of-plane stability, the
axial loading ratio limit during the transportation, lifting, erection
and working phases, the sufficient strength and stiffness to resist wind
loading, and the reinforcement details. The longitudinal bars have a
diameter of 20 mm and the hoops have a diameter of 10 mm. Those
bars are the grade HRB400. The grade C40 concrete is used to build
the precast concrete modules, while the grade C60 concrete is
adopted as grout material. The outer diameter of 45 mm and the
length of 370 mm are suggested by Ref. [28] for the grouted sleeves
matching with the 20 mm-diameter bars. More information about the
precast walls is presented in Fig. 6.
The shear link of RSCB is made by Q235 and designed to yield in
shear using e/(Mp,sl/Vp,sl) smaller than 1.6 [27]. Here, e is the length
of the shear link; Mp,sl and Vp,sl are the plastic flexural and shear
strengths of the shear link, respectively. The ribbed stiffeners are
welded to the web and flanges of the shear link on both sides, of
which the aim is to prevent premature buckling of the web and
flanges. The end plate connection is designed to use the shear key to
resist shear force and high-strength bolts to resist moment. The shear
key is designed to keep Vy,sk/Vp,sl larger than 1.5. Here, Vy,sk is the
yield shear strength of the shear key. Eight M14 high strength bolts
have the nominal diameter of 14 mm and the grade of 10.9. The
grade 10.9 means that the minimum tensile strength is 1000 MPa and
the strength-yield ratio is 0.9. The beam segments are fabricated by
Q345 and expected to keep elastic during a strong earthquake using
both Mp,bs/Mp,sl and Vp,bs/Vp,sl larger than 2.0 [27]. Mp,bs and Vp,bs are
Fig. 6. Design details about the precast wall of concrete modules (unit: mm).
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Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355
the plastic flexural and shear strengths of the beam segments, respec-
tively. More details about RSCB are shown in Fig. 7.
The RC coupling beam is designed to ensure the same coupling ra-
tio between the HCW system and the counterpart RCW system. The
coupling ratio is defined as the proportion of overturning moment re-
sisted by all the coupling beams to the total overturning moment of
the coupled wall system [29]. The RC coupling beam is constructed
by the grade HRB 400 bars and the grade C40 concrete. The 20 mm-
diameter bars are used for the longitudinal bars while the 10 mm-
diameter bars are used for the hoops. The longitudinal bars have the
spacing length of no less than 30 times bar diameter. Fig. 8 presents
more details about the RC coupling beam.
The properties of all the used materials are summerized in Table 1
and Table 2.
3. Nonlinear numerical model
3.1. Modeling assumptions and simplifications
The rigid diaphragm assumption is available for the case building
adopting the proposed modular construction due to the reliable hori-
zontal connections including inner-module connections, inter-module
connections, and connections between corridor and modules. Benefit-
ting from the rigid diaphragm effect, the slender wall piers get out-of-
plane support from the ceiling slabs at each story (Fig. 9), based on
which the out-of-plane buckling of wall piers is not considered in this
model. Meanwhile, the rigid diaphragm effect can effectively reduce
the influence of the cumulative permanent drifts caused by the verti-
cal inter-module connections on the structural stability of the entire
modular building, so the influence of the cumulative permanent drifts
is not specially considered in this research.
The less module types are used, the more advantage modular con-
struction has. The case building is constructed adopting uniform con-
crete modules, which indicates that each wall pier and coupling
beams along the weak axis have the identical structural parameters
Z. Wang and W. Pan Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355

Fig. 7. Design details about RSCBs (unit: mm).

Fig. 8. Design details of the RC coupling beams (unit: mm).

Table 1 Table 2
Material properties of deformed bars and steel. Material properties of concrete.

Type Es (GPa) vs fy (MPa) εsh Esh (GPa) fu/MPa εu Type Ec (GPa) vc fc (MPa) εco ft (MPa) εcu

D10 200 0.3 400 0.01 10 600 0.10 C40 30.0 0.2 40 0.002 2.8 0.0038
D20 200 0.3 400 0.01 10 600 0.10 C60 36.5 0.2 60 0.002 4.2 0.0038
Q235 200 0.3 235 0.006 10 370 0.10
Note: Ec and vc are the elastic modular and the Poisson's ratio of concrete, re-
Q345 200 0.3 345 0.009 10 470 0.10
spectively; fc and ft are the compressive and tensile strengths of concrete, re-
Note: Es and vs are the elastic modular and the Poisson's ratio of deformed spectively; εco and εcu are the strains of concrete corresponding to the com-
bars and steel, respectively; Esh is the tangent at the initial strain hardening of pressive strength and the ultimate state, respectively.
deformed bars and steel; fy and fu are the yield and ultimate strengths of de-
formed bars and steel, respectively; εsh and εu are the strains of deformed bars
loading test results [30]. The RC coupling beams with lap-spaced lon-
and steel corresponding to the initial strain hardening and the ultimate
gitudinal bars are considered to have the same hysteretic behavior to
strength, respectively.
the monolithic comparisons when the lap-spaced longitudinal bars
have enough longe development length. The wall piers are assumed to
and loading distributions. Also, the rigid diaphragm assumption
be fixed at the base and the soil-pile interaction is neglected. The
means that all of the slender wall piers have the same lateral displace-
damping ratios of both the HCW and RCW systems are suggested to
ment at each story level. Each HCW system made up of two slender
be 5% [31].
wall piers and 40 RSCBs is deemed to have the same structural re-
sponses when the case building is subject to lateral loadings. Thus,
3.2. Modeling method and experimental verification
this study can select any HCW system to predict the lateral behavior
of the case building. The same principle applies to RCW system.
Fig. 10 presents the proposed finite element (FE) models for the
In this model, the precast wall piers with the grouted sleeve con-
HCW and RCW systems. The FE models are established based on the
nections are deemed to have the identical hysteretic behavior to the
open source software OpenSees, which is versatile, extensile and
monolithic companions, which was proven by the reported cyclic

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Z. Wang and W. Pan Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355

Fig. 9. Structural simplification diagram of the case building using modular construction.

reusable [32]. The section introduces the modeling details and experi- shear modulus Gcr of the cracked concrete caused by flexural deforma-
mental verifications about RC wall piers, RC coupling beams, and tion to determine the linear sectional shear stiffness [36] as
RSCBs, respectively.
(1)
3.2.1. Reinforced concrete wall piers
The RC wall piers of the HCW and RCW systems are slender in the where bsw and hsw are the sectional width and height of the RC wall
40-story case building and modeled with Displacement-based Beam- piers, respectively. Gcr can be calculated as [37].
Column Elements considering the shear effect. The elements adopt
fiber section to consider the axial-flexure behavior of the RC wall
(2)
piers. The fiber section of the RC wall piers is divided into unconfined
concrete fibers, confined concrete fibers, and bar fibers based on the
plane section assumption. The two concrete fibers are modeled with where ωx and ωy are the reinforcement indexes in the x- and y-
Concrete02 material model while the bar fibers are modeled with Re- directions of the RC wall piers, respectively. They are calculated as
inforcing Steel material model. The two material models are provided [37].
by OpenSees and deemed to have the capacity of capturing nonlinear
material properties of concrete and steel [33,34]. The material failure (3)
criteria of concrete and bar are used for the reinforced concrete wall
piers in the FE model. More information about the two material mod-
els is provided in Ref. [35]. (4)
The shear effect is considered defining sectional shear stiffness ksh
of the RC wall piers. The sectional shear stiffness is simplified to be
linear. The flexural-shear interaction is considered using the reduced

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Z. Wang and W. Pan
Fig. 10. The proposed finite element models for the HCW and RCW systems.
where ρx and ρy are the reinforcement ratios in the x- and y-directions
of the RC wall piers, respectively. fy-x and fy-y are the yield strengths of
reinforcement in the x- and y-directions of the RC wall piers, respec-
tively. κ is the limit as [37].
(5)
The model of RC wall piers is verified by two RC shear wall speci-
mens RW2 and PW1, which were reported to fail in a typical flexural
failure mode. More details about the specimens RW2 and RW2 are
listed in the references [38,39]. There is a consensus between the cal-
culated and experimental results of the two specimens (Fig. 11). The
FE model in this paper is verified to have the capacity of predicting
the nonlinear structural behavior of the slender RC wall piers.
3.2.2. Reinforced concrete coupling beams
RC coupling beams of RCW system are slender and reinforced by
the stirrups in a conventional method, which indicates that the RC
coupling beams fail in a typical flexural failure mode. Therefore,
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Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355
Beam with Hinges Elements are selected to simulate the nonlinear
structural behavior of the RC coupling beams based on the equivalent
plastic model (Fig. 10). The elements model the axial-flexure behavior
using the fiber section made up of unconfined concrete fibers, con-
fined concrete fibers, and bar fibers. The fibers are defined using the
same material models as the RC wall piers. The material failure crite-
ria of concrete and bar are also used for the reinforced concrete cou-
pling beams in the FE model. The effects of bar-slip and shear defor-
mation are considered determining the effective stiffness EIeff [40] and
the equivalent plastic hinge length Lp [41] as
EIeff = 0.15EcIg,cb (6)
Lp = 0.08Lcb + 0.022db,cbfy,cb (7)
where Ig,cb is the inertia moment of the RC coupling beams; Lcb is the
shear span length of the RC coupling beams and equal to a half of the
total length in this study; db,cb and fy,cb are the diameter and the yield
strength of longitudinal bars used in the RC coupling beams, respec-
tively.
Z. Wang and W. Pan
Fig. 11. Comparison between the trial and calculated results of the RC shear wall specimens.
The model of RC coupling beams is verified by two RC beam speci-
mens No.6 and No. 9, which have a typical flexural failure. More de-
tails about the specimens No.6 and No. 9 are reported in Ref. [42,43].
There is a good agreement between the calculated and experimental
hysteretic curves of the two specimens (Fig. 12). The proposed model
is verified to be capable to predict the nonlinear structural behavior of
the slender RC coupling beams.
3.2.3. Replaceable steel coupling beams
A serious of tandem elements are used to model RSCBs (Fig. 10).
The shear link is modeled by Two Node Link Element, which is de-
fined using the parameters of the axial, shear, and flexural springs.
The shear link is designed to yield in shear, which means that the ax-
ial and flexural springs always maintain elastic. The axial and flexural
springs are characterized by Elastic material model [35], which is de-
fined using the elastic stiffness. The elastic stiffness is calculated for
the axial spring as
k a , sh = E sA sh / e (8)
where Ash is the sectional area of the shear link. The elastic stiffness is
calculated for the flexural spring as
k f , sh = E sI g , sh / e (9)
where Ig,sh is the inertia moment of the shear link. The shear springs
are characterized by Steel02 material model, which is defined using
the yield force, the elastic stiffness, and other parameters depending
on the steel material. The yield force is calculated for the shear spring
as [44].
Fig. 12. Comparison between the trial and calculated results of the RC beam specimens.
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Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355
(10)
where fy,sh,w and Ash,w are the yield strength and the area of the web
for the shear link, respectively. The elastic stiffness is calculated for
the shear spring as [31].
(11)
Those parameters of Steel02 material model depending on the
steel material can refer to the suggestions provided by Ref. [31].
The beam segments are deemed to transfer the force of the shear
link to the adjacent RC wall piers considering no influence of the sur-
rounding concrete. Elastic Beam Elements are used to model the beam
segments because they keep elastic during a strong earthquake mo-
tion. Also, Zero-length Element is located between the beam segments
and the shear link as a shear spring to model the shear deformation of
the beam segments (Fig. 10). The shear spring is characterized by
Elastic material model, of which the elastic stiffness is calculated as
(12)
where Ash,w and lbs are the area of the web and the length for the
beam segments, respectively.
In the FE model, the material failure criteria of concrete and bar
cannot be directly used for the tandem elements modeling the RSCBs.
In this research, some suggestions regarding the bearing capacity and
Z. Wang and W. Pan
deformation limit of RSCBs are used as failure criteria for RSCBs in
the FE model according to the obtained responses of RSCBs from the
FE model.
The model of RSCB is verified by the cyclic loading test of the
shear link Q11 [45] and the RSCB CB1 [27], which adopt the same
construction details as this study. More details about the two speci-
mens Q11 and CB1 are reported in Ref. [27,45]. The calculated results
agree well with the experimental results (Fig. 13). The model of
RSCBs in this paper was found to be available to simulate the nonlin-
ear structural behavior of the RSCBs.
4. Seismic responses according to nonlinear dynamic analysis
4.1. Selected ground motions
Generally, the long-period structures, such as high-rise buildings,
should not be built on the soft soil foundation if possible. The case
building in this research is hypothesized to be built in a real site lo-
cated in Kennedy Town, HK. According to the borehole records, the
real site belongs to Ground Type B, which indicates that the construc-
tion site has a relatively stiff soil site condition [46]. According to the
seismic code draft of HK [46], the Vs30 is ranged from 360 m/s to
800 m/s for the Ground Type B. Here, Vs30 is the wave velocity of the
upper 30 m of the soil profile. The seven earthquake motion records
with the Vs30 between 360 m/s and 800 m/s were selected corre-
sponding to 5% damping from the NGA-West2 of PEER Ground Mo-
tion Database according to the target spectrum specialized in the seis-
mic code draft of HK [46]. The average response spectrum of the se-
lected records can agree well with the target spectrum of the design
basis earthquake (Fig. 14). More details about the selected records are
listed in Table 3.
The HK buildings department suggests three intensities of earth-
quake motion, i.e. low intensity earthquake (LIE), moderate intensity
earthquake (MIL), and high intensity earthquake (HIE). The proposed
very rare earthquake (VRE) by the Chinese code [47] is considered to
further assess the seismic performance of the HCW system. The proba-
bilities of exceedance (PoE) and return periods (RP) of the four inten-
sities are presented in Fig. 14 [46,47]. Their acceleration amplitudes
are 0.43, 1, 2, and 3 times that of the design basis earthquake, respec-
tively. Because the case building belongs to Importance Class C ac-
cording to its residential usage and its site conforms to Ground Type
B, the peak ground acceleration (PGA) of the design basis earthquake
is 0.84 g for the case building according to the seismic code draft of
HK [46].
Fig. 13. Comparison between the trial and calculated results of the shear link and RSCB specimens.
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Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355
4.2. Reinforced concrete wall piers
4.2.1. Shear force
The shear force demands of RC wall piers are compared between
the HCW and RCW systems (Fig. 15). Here, mean refers to the mean
value while std indicates the stand deviation. The HCW and RCW sys-
tems have the basically identical shear force demands of RC wall piers
along the building height. The shear force demand linearly decreases
from the 1st story to the 20th story while it increases and then de-
creases from the 20th story to the 40th story. The maximum shear
force demand is located at the bottom and a peak value is found at
the 30th story. The shear force demand has the constant shape and
the proportional value with the intensities of earthquake motion.
The time histories of shear force demand-capacity ratio Vdm/Vcp
are presented for the bottom of the RC wall piers subject to VRE (Fig.
16), of which the aim is to check whether the shear failure of RC wall
piers occurs or not. Vdm is the shear force demand while Vcp is the
shear resistance capacity. Here, Vcp of the RC wall piers is calculated
according to the concrete code of HK [48]. The absolute values of
Vdm/Vcp are far less than 1.0. The RC wall piers were found to have
sufficient capacity to resist the shear force demand caused by VRE for
the HCW and RCW systems.
4.2.2. Moment
The moment demands of RC wall piers are compared between the
HCW and RCW systems (Fig. 17). There is the basically identical mo-
ment demand distribution of RC wall piers. The moment demand de-
crease linearly from the 1st story to the 10th story while it first in-
creases and then decreases from the 10th story to the 40th story. The
maximum moment demand is located at the bottom and a peak value
is found at the 20th story. The nonlinear variation of moment was at-
tributed to the two reasons: the moment demands at the different sto-
ries do not occur at the same time; and the second mode along the
weak axis may have the dominated effect on the moment demands of
the case building, which results in that the moment demand at the
20th story is more than that at the 10th story. The moment demand
has the unvaried distribution shape and the proportional value with
the intensities of earthquake motion.
The moment demand-capacity ratio Mdm/Mcp at the bottom of RC
wall piers is used to check whether the flexural damage of RC wall
piers occurs or not. Mdm is the moment demand while Mcp is the mo-
ment resistance capacity. Here, Mcp is regarded as the yield moment
My,wp, which depends on the axial loading Nwp of RC wall piers. Hence
the axial loading variation is first determined for the bottom of RC
wall piers during an earthquake motion.
The time history of axial loading is presented for the bottom of RC
wall piers subject to VRE (Fig. 18). The HCW system has a little larger
Z. Wang and W. Pan Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355

of Vdm/Vcp are still less than 1.0, which indicates that the RC wall
piers have the capacity to meet the moment demand caused by VRE
for the two systems.

Fig. 14. The target spectra of the selected earthquake motion records.
variation of axial loading than the RCW system. The axial loading-
moment capacity curve of RC wall piers is given according to the re-
sults of the sectional analysis, which adopts Zero-length Section Ele-
ment and the used fiber section for the axial-flexure behavior of RC
wall piers (Fig. 10). The axial loading variation scope at the bottom of
RC wall piers is marked for the HCW and RCW systems (Fig. 19). The
axial loading-moment capacity curve is simplified for the variation
scope as
(13)
4.2.3. Deformation
Because the most countries’ codes adopt the interstory drift ratio
as the index to validate the lateral deformation of building under
earthquake motions, the index is used to compare the deformation de-
mands of RC wall piers between the HCW and RCW systems (Fig. 21).
The two systems have the close and nonlinearly increasing deforma-
tion demands of RC wall piers along the building height. The defor-
mation demand has a constant distribution shape and the proportional
value with the intensities of earthquake motion.
The seismic code draft of HK [46] does not suggest the lateral de-
formation limits for high-rises subject to the different intensities of
earthquake motions. Because HK is adjacent to Guangdong Province
of China, the specified lateral deformation limits in the Chinese code
[47] are referred below. The upper limits of interstory drift ratio are
1/1000 at LIE and 1/120 at HIE, respectively. The calculated lateral
deformation was found to meet the code requirement for the two sys-
tems (Fig. 21).
The residual deformation demands of RC wall piers have different
distribution and the close maximum values between the two systems
(Fig. 22). FEMA P-58 [49] recommends that the residual story drift
ratio of less than 0.20% indicates no repair required for structural
components. The RC wall piers of the two systems were found to have
no seismic damage because the maximum residual story drift ratios
are less than 0.20% at VRE.

The time histories of moment demand-capacity ratio are presented

for the bottom of RC wall piers at VRE (Fig. 20). The absolute values

Table 3
Detailed information about the selected earthquake motion records.

No. Event Year Station Magnitude Dcf (km) Vs30 (m/s) Orientation (°) T5- 95 (s)

1 Parkfield 1966 San Luis Obispo 6.19 63.34 493.5 234 17.8
2 San Fernando 1971 Castaic- Old Ridge Route 6.61 22.63 450.3 21 16.8
3 San Fernando 1971 Cedar Springs Pumphouse 6.61 92.59 477.2 126 10.2
4 San Fernando 1971 Upland- San Antonio Dam 6.61 61.73 487.2 15 14.3
5 Ierissos_Greece 1983 Ierissos 6.70 65.67 463.9 90 9.4
6 N. Palm Springs 1986 Whitewater Trout Farm 6.06 6.04 425.0 180 5.5
7 Loma Prieta 1989 WAHO 6.93 17.47 388.3 0 11.0

Note: Dcf is the distance to the closest fault.

Fig. 15. Shear force demands of RC wall piers.

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Z. Wang and W. Pan Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355

Fig. 16. Shear force demand-capacity ratios for the bottom of RC wall piers subject to VRE.

Fig. 17. Moment demands of RC wall piers.

Fig. 18. Axial loading at the bottom of RC wall piers at VRE.

4.3. Coupling beams
4.3.1. Shear force
The shear force demands of coupling beams are compared between
the HCW and RCW systems (Fig. 23). RC coupling beams and RSCBs
keep elastic at LIE and MIE. Due to larger elastic stiffness, RC cou-
pling beams have a larger shear force demands than RSCBs at LIE and
MIE. RC coupling beams and RSCBs become inelastic at HIE and VRE.
Due to different material properties of steel and RC, RSCBs show the
full hysteretic loops while RC coupling beams show the hysteretic
loops with pinching effects and stiffness degradation. Therefore,
RSCBs have a little larger shear force demands than RC counterparts
at HIE and VRE. The maximum value of shear force demands is lo-
cated at the 35th story for the two systems.

12
Z. Wang and W. Pan Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355

The RC coupling beam does not fail in shear because its positive and
negative maximum values of Vdm/Vcp are 0.45 and -0.46.

4.3.2. Moment
Fig. 25 presents the similar moment demands at the coupling
beam ends to the shear force demands of the coupling beams for the
HCW and RCW systems. Therefore, no more description is repeated.
The moment demand-capacity ratio Mdm/Mcp at the ends of cou-
pling beams is used to check whether the flexural damage occurs or
not for coupling beams. The moment capacity Mcp,sb of RSCBs is calcu-
lated as [44].

M cp , s b = f y , s b Z z , s b (14)

where fy,sb and Zz,sb are the yield strength and the elastic sectional
modulus of the segment beam. The moment capacity Mcp,cb of RC cou-
pling beams depends on the axial loading Ncb of RC coupling beams.
Fig. 19. Axial loading-moment capacity curve of RC wall piers.
Fig. 26 presents the Ncb at the 35th story is varied from -7.40 kN to
59.75 kN at VRE.
The time histories of shear force demand-capacity ratio Vdm/Vcp
The axial loading-moment capacity curve is given for the RC cou-
are presented for the coupling beams at the 35th story at VRE (Fig.
pling beams in this study (Fig. 27) according to the results of the sec-
24). Vcp of RC coupling beams is calculated according to the concrete
tional analysis, which adopts Zero-length Section Element and the
code of HK [48] while Vcp of RSCBs is calculated according to Eq. (10)
used fiber section for the RC coupling beams (Fig. 10). The variation
[44]. The positive and negative maximum values of Vdm/Vcp are 1.42
scope of the axial loading is marked (Fig. 27) according to the results
and -1.42 for the RSCB, which indicates that the RSCB yields in shear.

Fig. 20. Moment demand-capacity ratios at the bottom of RC wall piers at VRE.

Fig. 21. Interstory drift ratios of RC wall piers.

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Z. Wang and W. Pan Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355

Fig. 22. Residual story drift ratios of RC wall piers.

Fig. 23. Shear force demands of coupling beams.

Fig. 24. Shear force demand-capacity ratio of coupling beams at the 35th story at VRE.

14
Z. Wang and W. Pan Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355

Fig. 25. Moment demands at the coupling beam ends.

4.3.3. Deformation
The coupling beam rotations are compared between the HCW and
RCW systems (Fig. 29). The HCW and RCW systems have the close
beam rotation distribution at LIE. The HCW system has significantly
smaller beam rotations than the RCW system at all the stories at MIE,
HIE, and VRE, which is attributed to the different deformation mecha-
nism and material properties between the two types of coupling
beams.

5. Assessment of seismic performance

The fragility probability is used to measure the seismic risk of a

structure as [50].

Fig. 26. Axial loading for the RC coupling beam at the 35th story at VRE.
(15)

where IM is the intensity measure of earthquake motion and refer to

the four different intensities of earthquake motions in this study; EDP
is the engineering demand parameters corresponding to the specified
IM and can be the interstory drift ratio, residual drift ratio, and beam
rotation; LS is the specified limit state; Φ[∙] is the standard normal cu-
mulative distribution function; βtol is the total dispersion [51]. EDP is
obtained from the above results of seismic responses while LS is de-
fined using empirical values according to experimental results [48].
The seismic performance is assessed for the HCW and RCW systems
below.

5.1. Fragility data for structural components

5.1.1. Concrete shear walls

The fragility data are listed in Table 4 for the slender RC shear
Fig. 27. Axial loading-moment capacity curve of RC coupling beams.
walls with the aspect ratio not less than 2.0 [48]. The large interstory
drift ratios at higher stores are due to rigid body rotation caused by
shown in Fig. 26. The variation scope of the axial loading was found
the damaged bottom of the RC wall piers [31]. Therefore, EDP of the
to be very narrow, so the moment capacity Mcp,cb is deemed to be
RC wall piers adopts the effective wall drift ratios, which is defined as
93.23 kN m, which is the moment capacity of the RC coupling beams
the mean value of the interstory drift ratios at the first two stories ac-
when the axial loading is zero.
cording to the suggestion proposed by Ref. [31].
The time histories of moment demand-capacity ratio Mdm/Mcp are
provided for the coupling beams at the 35th story at VRE (Fig. 28).
5.1.2. Concrete coupling beams
The positive and negative maximum values of Mdm/Mcp are 0.95 and
FEMA P-58 [49] provides the fragility data for the twelve cate-
-0.92 for the RSCB, so the RSCB does not yield in flexure. The RC cou-
gories of RC coupling beams, which are divided according to aspect
pling beam yields in flexural occurs because its positive and negative
ratios, beam width, and reinforcement layouts. The used RC coupling
maximum values of Vdm/Vcp are 1.24 and -1.26.

15
Z. Wang and W. Pan Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355

Fig. 28. Moment demand-capacity ratio for the coupling beams at the 35th story at VRE.

Fig. 29. Coupling beam rotations.

Table 4 Table 5
Fragility data for the used slender RC wall piers in this study [31,49]. Fragility data for the used RC coupling beams in this study [49].

Damage Effective wall Damage description Damage Beam rotation Damage description
state drift ratio state

Median βtol Median βtol

(%) (%)

DS1 0.12 0.76 Initial crack occurs. Crack width is less than 0.5 mm. DS1 1.40 0.21 Residual cracks are less than 1.6 mm. Some limited
flexural cracks occur.
DS2 0.93 0.48 Spalling of cover concrete occurs. Crack width is
DS2 2.60 0.33 Residual cracks are more than 3.2 mm. Minor spalling of
more than 1.6 mm.
concrete occurs.
DS3 1.30 0.34 Longitudinal bars are exposed outside.
DS3 4.10 0.75 Obvious strength degradation occurs due to buckling or
DS4 1.90 0.44 Concrete crushing occurs. Longitudinal bars fail with
fracture of bars, or concrete crushing.
fracture or buckling.

Table 6
beams in the study are the closest to the category that has the conven-
tional reinforcement layout, the aspect ratio between 2.0 and 4.0, and Fragility data of the used shear links in this study [31].
the beam width of less than 406.4 mm. The fragility data are listed in Damage Shear link Damage description
Table 5 for the used RC coupling beams in this study. state rotation

Median βtol
5.1.3. Shear links in RSCBs (%)
Ji et al. [31] proposed the fragility data for the shear links of
DS1 5.00 0.30 There is basically no damage for the RSCB, surrounding
RSCBs according to their past cyclic loading tests of the shear link
which the concrete is damaged.
[45]. The used RSCBs in this study belong to the identical type, of DS2 9.00 0.19 Buckling occurs for the web or flanges of the shear link.
which the detailed fragility data are presented in Table 6. DS3 11.00 0.15 The fracture occurs for the web of the shear link or the
link flange- to- end plate welds.

16
Z. Wang and W. Pan
5.2. Performance assessment
The mean effective wall drift ratios of RC wall piers are calculated
for the HCW and RCW systems (Table 7).
The probabilities of different damage levels are presented for RC
wall piers at LIE, MIE, HIE, and VRE (Fig. 30). Here, DS0 represents
no damage. The RC wall piers between the two systems have the very
close probabilities of different damage states. There is no damage for
RC wall piers at LIE and MIE. The probabilities of DS1 are 3.5% and
3.3% for the RC wall piers of the HCW and RCW systems at HIE,
while they are 12.7% and 11.8% for those of the HCW and RCW sys-
tems at VRE. The expected damage of RC wall piers can be neglected
for both the HCW and RCW systems because they only require cos-
metic repair of surface finish even at VRE.
The probabilities of different damage levels are predicted for RC
wall piers at HIE and VRE (Fig. 31). There is no damage of coupling
beams for the HCW and RCW systems at HIE. The expected damage of
DS1 can be found for the coupling beams at the top half of the HCW
and RCW systems at VRE. The maximum probabilities of DS1 are
36.2% and 5.3% for RSCBs and RC coupling beams at VRE, which
may be attributed to that the plastic rotation of RSCBs is only limited
to the shear link. The expected damage of coupling beams is very low
for the HCW and RCW systems.
6. Wind responses according to nonlinear static analysis
6.1. Calculated wind loading
The windy resistance of the case building is checked because HK is
extremely vulnerable to typhoons. The total along-wind force Fwind on
the case building must consider the significant resonant dynamic re-
sponse according to the wind code of HK [52] because the height is
over 100 m. The HCW system has 1.58% larger wind loading than the
RCW system (Fig. 32) due to different foundation frequencies between
the two systems.
Table 7
Effective wall drift ratios of RC wall piers.
Earthquake level LIE MIE HIE VRE
HCW 0.0060 0.0140 0.0302 0.0505
RCW 0.0061 0.0140 0.0297 0.0488
Fig. 30. Predicted damage of RC wall piers.
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Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355
6.2. Reinforced concrete wall piers
The HCW and RCW systems have the close shear force and mo-
ment distributions (Fig. 33(a) and Fig. 33(b)), when they are subject
to the specified wind loading in the windy code of HK [52]. The shear
force and moment are far less than the capacities of the RC wall piers.
Hence the RC wall piers are intact for the two systems. The HCW sys-
tem has the 17.4% larger drift ratio at the top than the RCW system
mainly (Fig. 33(c)) because the RSCBs have the less elastic stiffness
than the RC coupling beams in this study. The HK concrete code sug-
gests that 0.2% is the upper limit of deflection at the top when a static
characteristic wind loading is conducted on a building [48], so the
lateral deformation of RC wall piers meets the code requirement for
the two systems.
6.3. Coupling beams
The HCW and RCW systems have the very close shear force and
moment distributions of coupling beams along the building height
(Fig. 34(a) and Fig. 34(b)). The RSCBs and the RC coupling beams are
intact under the specified wind loading because the maximum shear
force and moment responses are less than the capacities of the cou-
pling beams. The HCW system has significantly larger coupling beam
rotations than the RCW under the wind loading (Fig. 34(c)) mainly
due to the less elastic stiffness of the RSCBs.
7. Conclusions
This paper has developed a hybrid coupled wall (HCW) system for
high-rise modular buildings. The HCW system adopted precast con-
crete walls within concrete modules and replaceable steel coupling
beam (RSCB) to replace traditional in-situ walls or cores. The system
was to not only improve the modular construction productivity but
also apply the newest seismic design concepts of earthquake resilience
to high-rise modular buildings. A 40-story residential building with
the regular rectangular plan was selected as the case for study. The
structural performance of the case building under the seismic and
wind loadings was assessed to check the feasibility of the HCW system
for 40-story modular buildings. The study filled the research gaps
about the structural performance of modular buildings under the seis-
mic and wind effects.
In this research, the HCW system was benchmarked by a rein-
forced-concrete coupled wall (RCW) system which was identical to
the HCW system except for the reinforced concrete (RC) coupling
beams. Nonlinear finite element (FE) models were developed for the
Z. Wang and W. Pan
Fig. 31. Predicted damage of coupling beams.
Fig. 32. Wind loading distribution according to the wind code of HK [52].
HCW and RCW systems respectively. The reported test results in the
literature were used to validate the developed FE models. Nonlinear
dynamic analysis was conducted on the two systems at low intensity
earthquake, moderate intensity earthquake, high intensity earthquake,
and very rare earthquake. The nonlinear dynamic analysis results
were compared and used to assess their seismic performance accord-
ing to the suggested fragility data in literature. The feasibilities of the
two systems were checked for the 40-story case building under the
code-specified wind load.
The main findings are listed below.
(1) The developed FE model is capable to predict the nonlinear
structural performance of the HCW and RCW systems. The
calculated hysteretic curves of RC wall piers, RC coupling beams
and RSCBs agree well with the reported experimental results in
literature.
18
Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355
(2) The HCW can provide sufficient seismic resistance for high-rise
modular buildings at low intensity earthquake, moderate
intensity earthquake, high intensity earthquake, and very rare
earthquake. RC wall piers do not fail in shear and are lightly
damaged in flexure at very rare earthquake. The deflection of the
HCW system is less than the specified upper limits in the codes.
(3) The HCW and RCW systems have the same seismic responses of
RC wall piers and the different seismic responses of coupling
beams. The two types of coupling beams have the close beam
rotations and the different force demands at low intensity
earthquake while they have the close force demands and the
different beam rotations at moderate intensity earthquake, high
intensity earthquake, and very rare earthquake.
(4) The expected damage of RC wall piers is very low and only
cosmetic repair of surface finish is required for the HCW system
at HIE and VRE. There is no damage for the RC wall piers at low
intensity earthquake and moderate intensity earthquake. The
probabilities of Damage state 1 are 3.5% and 3.3% for the RC
wall piers of the HCW and RCW systems at high intensity
earthquake while they are 12.7% and 11.8% at very rare
earthquake.
(5) The expected damage of coupling beams is very low for the HCW
system at very rare earthquake. There is no damage of coupling
beams for the HCW and RCW systems at low intensity
earthquake, moderate intensity earthquake, and high intensity
earthquake. The maximum probabilities of Damage state 1 are
36.2% and 5.3% for the RSCBs and the RC coupling beams at
very rare earthquake because the plastic rotation of RSCBs is
concentrated on the shear link.
(6) The HCW system can provide sufficient capacity for high-rise
modular building to resist the high wind pressure specified in
Z. Wang and W. Pan
Fig. 33. Wind responses of RC wall piers.
Fig. 34. Wind responses of coupling beams.
Hong Kong code. All the elements can keep intact and the
deflections are less than the specified upper limit in the code
under the wind loading. The HCW system has the less
deformation of wall piers and coupling beams than RCW system,
while there are the very close force demands of wall piers and
coupling beams between the two systems.
This paper has provided a feasible scheme applying the latest seis-
mic concepts to 40-story or taller modular buildings. Because the de-
veloped hybrid coupled wall system in the research is novel for high-
rise modular buildings, there are no existing experimental data to di-
rectly validate the FE model of the entire high-rise modular building
using the developed coupled wall system. Also, the available experi-
mental data and fragility data in this research are not for the compo-
nents of high-rise modular buildings. Moreover, it is possible that the
numerical simulation overlooks other important considerations.
Therefore, future research is necessary to conduct special experiments
on the modular elements and connections. It becomes more hazardous
to select near-fault earthquake motion records including significant
long-period components as the input earthquake motion for high-rise
modular buildings built on a soft soil foundation, which shall also be
interesting and meaningful research in the future.
19
Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Zhen Wang: Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis,
Data curation, Writing - original draft, Visualization. Wei Pan: Con-
ceptualization, Investigation, Resources, Writing - review & editing,
Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
The work presented in this paper was supported by a grant from
the Research Impact Fund of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council
(Project No. R7027-18).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101355.
Z. Wang and W. Pan Journal of Building Engineering 31 (2020) 101355

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