Preliminary Study on Tall Building Coupling Using a Rigid Link

In growing urban cities, there is an evident trend towards vertical expansion with skyscrapers competing to achieve the highest point in the skyline. With this growth, there is an increasing need for interconnected residential and commercial buildings using skybridges to provide more effective movement between the structures. However, this raises questions on how these skybridges influence the structural response. Past studies demonstrated that such connections, if adequately designed, can be advantageous for controlling seismic and wind response. In this preliminary study, the seismic behavior of two skyscrapers is studied considering a rigid link representing the skybridge to understand variations of the base shear between the connected and individual buildings and the impact on story shear. The two buildings are designed to represent typical commercial and residential designs with concrete shear wall cores. This work is carried out through the use of dynamic analyses in SAP2000. The sensitivity of the skybridge placement is also discussed as this is an important factor in understanding how the dynamics of the structures can change with simple movements of the link throughout the building height. This work presents fundamental knowledge on how structural components cannot only enhance community mobility but also control and optimize structural performance .