The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Accidental torsion in buildings : analysis versus earthquake motions

Lin, Wen-hsiung; Chopra, Anil K.

UCB/EERC-2003/01, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 2003, 225 pages (400/E177/2003-01)

A simplified analysis procedure has been developed to consider accidental torsion in building design. This procedure is extended and evaluated against measured accidental torsion determined from motions of 12 buildings with nominally-symmetric plans recorded during several California earthquakes. The buildings selected include structures in reinforced concrete and in steel covering a wide range of structural systems. Interpreting the measured torsion and comparing it with analytical estimates, it is demonstrated that this procedure is sufficiently accurate to be useful in design applications.

Available online: http://eerc.berkeley.edu/reports/2003/eerc%5F2003%5F01.pdf