Analysis for preliminary design of a class of torsionally coupled buildings with horizontal setbacks

Simplified method of analysis of a special class of torsionally coupled buildings with horizontal setbacks is developed that can be executed with a plane frame analysis by means of a personal computer. Since most buildings may not exactly satisfy all the classification criteria, it is shown that an averaging technique may be used in such cases up to a certain limit. Perturbation analysis is carried out in determining such a limit, and numerical examples are presented to validate this. As a whole, the proposed simplified analysis may be used as a convenient and offhand tool at the preliminary stage of design.