Geometric nonlinear analysis of tall building structures with outriggers

In this paper, the geometric nonlinear behavior of wall‐frame tall building structures is analyzed. The governing equations of the wall‐frame systems with outrigger trusses are formulated through the continuum approach, and the whole structure is idealized as a shear‐flexural cantilever with rotational spring. The effect of shear and flexural deformation of the wall frame and outrigger trusses are considered and incorporated in the formulation of the governing equations. Geometric nonlinearity in the sense of von Karman is included in the formulation, and Newton–Raphson iterative method is employed to solve the nonlinear equations. A displacement‐based one‐dimensional nonlinear finite element model is developed. Numerical results for wall frame and mega‐column structures with outriggers are obtained and compared with the finite element package MIDAS. The proposed method is found to be simple and efficient, providing reasonably accurate results in early design stages of tall building structures. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.