A shaking table test of a three-story reinforced concrete (RC) building was conducted. The tested building is vertically irregular because of the first story’s elevated height and the third story’s added RC walls. In addition to far-field ground motions, near-fault ground motions were exerted on this building. A numerical model of the three-story building was constructed. Comparing with the test results indicates that the numerical model is satisfactory for simulating the seismic response of the three-story building. This validated numerical model was then further applied to look into two issues: the effective section rigidities of RC members and the effects of near-fault ground motions. The study results show the magnitude of the possible discrepancy between the actual seismic response and the estimated seismic response, when the effective section rigidities of the RC members are treated as in common practice. An incremental dynamic analysis of the three-story RC building subjected to one far-field and one near-fault ground motion, denoted as CHY047 and TCU052, respectively, was conducted. In comparison with the far-field ground motion, the near-fault ground motion is more destructive to this building. In addition, the effect of the selected near-fault ground motion (i.e. TCU052) on the building’s collapse is clearly identified.

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