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SPECIAL ASPECTS

KINDLY REFER BOOK GIVEN TEXT BOOK


EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT DESIGN OF
STRUCTURES (PANKAJ AGRAWAL,MANISH SHRIKHANDE)
HOW BUILDINGS TWIST DURING AN EARTHQUAKE?
HOW BUILDINGS TWIST DURING AN EARTHQUAKE?
Twist in buildings, called TORSION by
engineers, makes different portions
at the same floor level to move
horizontally by different amounts.
This induces more damage in the
frames and walls on the side that
moves more (Figure 6).
It is best to minimize (if not
completely avoid) this twist by
ensuring that buildings have
symmetry in plan (i.e., uniformly
distributed mass and uniformly
placed lateral load resisting systems).
If this twist cannot be avoided,
special calculations need to be done
to account for this additional shear
forces in the design of buildings; the
Indian seismic code (IS 1893, 2002)
has provisions for such calculations.
But, for sure, buildings with twist will
perform poorly during strong
earthquake shaking.
HOW BUILDINGS TWIST DURING AN EARTHQUAKE?

Torsion
Centre of gravity or mass of any structure pass through a
point where it would be balanced against any rotation.
Any load, when uniformly distributed, then the
point would coincide with geometric centre of the structure.
If this centre of mass coincides with centre of rigidity, then
there would be no rotation effect.
The earthquake force assumed to act at the centre
of mass of the structure, and the resistance of the building
would pass through the centre of rigidity.
Asymmetry as far as mass and rigidity/ stiffness
distribution is concerned, would experience a rotational
problem. This is referred as Torsion, and as a result twisting
would occur to it, which is undesirable.
Not only in plan form, asymmetry has to be
checked in 3 dimensional configuration of a structure to
arrest the rotation phenomenon.
HOW BUILDINGS TWIST DURING AN EARTHQUAKE?
The term symmetry denotes a geometrical property of the plan
configuration, whereas the structural symmetry means that the center of mass
and the center of resistance are located at the same point.
In asymmetrical configuration / structural system the eccentricity
between the center of mass and resistance will produce torsion and stress
concentration and therefore the symmetrical forms are preferred to the
asymmetrical ones. (Fig 5.6)
Thus it is amply clear that as the
building becomes more symmetrical its
tendency to suffer torsion and the stress
concentration will reduce and performance
under seismic loads tends to considerably
improve.
This suggests that when good seismic
performance has to be achieved along with
maximum economy of design and construction,
the simple, regular and symmetrical shapes are
much preferred. However these tendencies must
not be mistaken for an axiom that the
symmetrical building does not suffer torsion.
ADJACENCY
Adjacency of Buildings:
When two buildings are too close to each other, they may pound on each other during
strong shaking.
With increase in building height, this collision can be a greater problem.
When building heights do not match (Figure 4), the roof of the shorter building may
pound at the mid-height of the column of the taller one; this can be very dangerous.
APPENDAGES
Vertical projections
Tower, tanks, parapets, smoke stacks (chimneys) and other
vertical cantilever projections attached to buildings and
projecting above the roof, shall be designed and checked
for stability for five times the design horizontal seismic
coefficient Ah. In the analysis of the building, the weight of
these projecting elements will be lumped with the roof
weight.

Horizontal projections
All horizontal projections like cornices and balconies shall
be designed and checked for stability for five times the
design vertical coefficient equal to 10/3 Ah.
In the Seismic Load dialog, the user may define seismic
coefficients for the Horizontal and / or Vertical directions.
The Seismic Coefficients are dimensionless
coefficients which represent the (maximum) earthquake
acceleration as a fraction of the acceleration due to
gravity.
STAIRCASES

IS 4326:1993 states that the interconnection of


the stairs with the adjacent floors should be appropriately
treated by providing sliding joints at the stairs to eliminate
their bracing effect on the floors.
Large stair halls shall preferably be separated
from the rest of the buildings by means of separation or
crumple section.
Three types of stair construction may be adopted:
separated staircase, Built-in stair case, and Staircases with
sliding joints(Fig 8.6.).

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