Seismic Loss Estimation of Modular Steel Buildings****

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Due to its high strength to weight ratio steel is preferred as the construction material for high rise buildings. During the traditional construction of steel buildings the assembly of all the structural and non-structural components is done on the construction site. On the other hand, modular construction is a relatively new construction technique for steel structures where volumetric modules are fully constructed and finished in a factory, and they are assembled on-site to form a permanent building. This method has gained popularity due to reduced construction time and material waste, and increased quality. The application of modular construction for high-rise buildings is relatively recent around the world; and in Canada the current application of modular steel construction mainly consists of structures that are not more than three-stories in height. High-rise buildings are sensitive to earthquakes due to increased lateral load demand and their ductility and overstrength factors - key parameters for seismic design - depend on the building height. As the height of the modular steel building increases both the reserve of strength and ductility decrease. In the current version of the National Building Code of Canada, these factors are defined according to the seismic force resisting system only. The lack of understanding of the correlation between these two factors and the building height could lead to inadequate designs of high-rise modular steel buildings. Through detailed nonlinear static and dynamic analyses and by developing seismic loss estimation relationships, the proposed research will investigate the key seismic design parameters specifically for modular steel buildings. By combining the design experience of the industry partner and the expertise of University of Toronto's research team in advanced simulation and earthquake engineering, the results of this collaborative research will yield significant benefits for the Canadian modular construction sector.**