15th July 2012

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Building Drift in ETABS

Drift is a very complex topic in structural engineering. It involves too many factors to arrive at a suitable decision. It involves engineering judgment, the phenomenon fresh engineers might not feel. In this article, I have tried to explain what is building drift, allowable limits, ways and means to check in ET !" models and to control the excessive drift. #lease keep in mind, this article is not about the building drift as far as structural science is concerned, rather this topic of drift is related to ET !" software. $irst of all you must be familiar with the term story drift. $or convenience, I am %uoting here the definitions from &!'()* code+(
STORY DRIFT is the lateral displacement of one level relative to the level above or below. STORY DRIFT RATIO is the story drift divided by the story height.

1) Maximum Limits ,ow what for story drift limits- .hat is the maximum permissible value- .ell it depends upon the type of drift. Is it seismic or wind$or seismic, I will refer to &!'()* code which in section /012./2.3 talks about drift limits for earth%uake.

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,ow in simple words, the maximum limit for seismic drift is+( delta 4 shall not exceed 2.235 x story ht 6if building seismic period is less than 2.*7 delta 4 shall not exceed 2.232 x story ht 6if building seismic period is e%ual or greater than 2.*7 Important to note here is that it talks about "EI"4I' drift so "EI"4I' building period not the .I,D period. Now delta M = Max inelastic response displacement = 0.7R delta S where 8 9 from Table /0(, delta " 9 displacement from static, elastic analysis

this value is read from ET !". you multiply this value by 2.*8 to get delta 4 This was all about seismic drift, but for wind drift code is mute. I will refer you to "'E 3225 commentary ''./.3

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"o we can understand that the limit for wind drift is :on the order of l;022 to l;<22: for :common usage:. This is common thing, however, in reality this figure can be up or down depending upon the ductility of cladding material and finishes. =owever for common usage value of l;<22 is thought to be well satisfactory. =ere l means story ht. The concept of drift limits is same throughout all the governing codes, and the typical limits of story height by some number is same, but obviously you have to take care of the process of calculating the wind force or seismic forces. >ou should not calculate wind force from one code and apply limits of another code. 2) Load Combinations ?nce the drift limit has been determined separately for seismic and wind forces, now is the need to check the actual drift vs the limit. Determination of actual drift depends on the load combination and the period of recurrence. If not properly calculated, this may dramatically increase or decrease the accepted drift values in model. "eismic force E is always already factored so that@s the reason its factor is always /.2 in load combinations of 'I; "'E code. The recurrence period for seismic force is 52 years. In seismic drift we do not convert it into service seismic force. "eismic drift is checked against the direct load case of EAx, EAy etc in ET !". $or wind drift, we need to convert 52 year wind to service wind force. It has been recommended by "'E commentary ''./.3

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To convert 52 year service wind force to /2 year service wind force it is multiplied by 2.*, as the e%uation says, and other gravity loadsB D and 2.5C are also added. "o in a nutshell we create following load combinations in ET !" to check our drift+( DRIFTWx1 = D+0.5L+0.7Wx

DRIFTWx2 = D+0.5L0.7Wx DRIFTWy1 = D+0.5L+0.7Wy DRIFTWy2 = D+0.5L0.7Wy $or seismic drift, as discussed earlier, we do not need any combination, drift will be checked just on EAx and EAy load cases only. 3) How to !" # in ETABS ,ow we have obtained both the actual drift and the drift limit, but how can we do this in ET !" easily.ell, after creating the drift combinations as discussed in step 3, we need to do as below+( $or seismic drift goto $ileD#rint TablesD"ummary 8eport

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"elect the file name

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"croll down to the end of the page, you will find out a section about drifts, similar to this one+(

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It displays the max drift for each lateral load case for each story. s we want the drift for wind to be on drift load combinations and not on wind load cases, so we will not compare this wind drift without limits. In this table we are going to check just the drift values of our ET !" model for individual seismic load casesB EAx and EAy. s you noticed, this table shows us values in fraction format. $or example /;/25 that becomes 2.22)531E2)53<. This /;/25 value is story drift divided by story ht. It means delta " ; story ht. ,ow this value is delta ". $irst we need to convert it to delta 4 by multiplying it with 2.*8. ssume 8 here is 1.5 so delta 4 9 2.* x 1.5 x /;/25 9 *;122 9 2.231111 which is less than 2.235 so safe 6 if TF2.*7. "o instead of calculating every time by 2.*8 we can check these limits in other way. If our limit is 2.235 then the limit we get is 2.235;8;2.*. ssume 891.5. ,ow the values in ET !" are inverse so our limit is 2.*x1.5;2.235 9 )E. In ET !" the drift is reported as /;x where x is some number. ,ow as long as x 6some number7 is greater than )E our limit of 2.235 x story ht is being satisfied. This way you can %uickly check and compare seismic drifts.

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,ow for the wind drifts, goto DisplayD"how tables, select #oint displacementsD"tory drifts and then select only drift combinations for results. 'lick on and then copy the table to EG'EC.

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To save time you can right click on EG'EC taskbar and select maximum and minimum. Then just select the column = or I and see the maximum value that should be less than =;<22 to =022 limit 62.2235 t2 2.22/0*7. gain the values reported in ET !" are divided by story ht.

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4) Controlling Excessive Drift Values sometimes you may face problem of excessively large values in drift tables in ETABS. Well we are not going to talk about different measures and modeling techni ues to control the drift values. We are going to talk about large numbers in drift tables. Sometimes it happens that a point or node is free in the model or is connected to a !"## line or very flexible section. $rift tables for example the story drift table in wind captures the maximum displaced points. %bviously the displacement of several meters in tables is not what we are looking for. $rift values &relative' may be still okay for these points( but it re uires you to check the displacement values too before checking directly the drift. "nlock the model and remove all free points( check for any discontinuity and modify your models to remove all the errors. ranawaseem.com 2ost,31(4th156l'1%*(% b'17+8+1$+s,,m L+b,ls:19:&ft; <A"=19:&ft1L&m&ts; =,&sm&c19:&ft; "6&l3&8g19:&fts; $&8319:&ft1>omb&8+t&o8; <A"=1ho!1to1 ch,c?13:&ft
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Rana Waseem

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Reply

wiki December 8, 2012 at 8:44 AM drift is delta s and limit of drift is .025.it is not the limit of delta m as sed in abo!e calc lations "delta M # 0.$ % &.5 % 1'105 # $'&00 # 0.02&&&& (hich is less than 0.025 so safe" Reply

Rana Waseem

December 8, 2012 at ):14 AM

Dear (i*i+ ,ts mentioned in the referenced code that drift sho ld be calc lated sin- delta M and drift limit sin- delta M sho ld be less than 0.025...,f my nderstandin- to the code is (ron- then please e%plain to me...(e sho ld not se delta s...delta s is the !al e (e -et from ./A01. 2e ha!e to ma*e it delta M Reply Replies thanvi 3ebr ary 25, 201& at &:24 AM 5reetin-s Mr. 2aseem+ 6o r nderstandin- of calc latin- Delta M and its limit of 0.025 for / 7 0.$ is correct and 2i*i is (ron-. it is e!ident from the code as (ell.

wiki May 1), 201& at ):10 AM than% sir rana i a-ain read the article -ot (hat i missed,mr.than!i i am st dent and tryin- to -et the concept and also tryin- to clear my conf sion i did not said that sir rana is (ron-. Reply

Samer Kamel 3ebr ary 4, 201& at 10:&4 8M (hen calc latin- the distance of separation bet(een the b ildin-s accordin- to 90: 14&&.2.11 do (e se also delta M beca se it -i!es a !ery lar-e !al es. for e%. it -i!e me a 20 cm bet(een the b ildin- (hich is not lo-ic Reply

Rana Waseem

3ebr ary 25, 201& at &:4& AM

yes samer *amel, (e do se !al e of delta m (hile calc latin- separation -ap... separation -ap is ; <delta M1=> ? <delta M2=> @ A 1'2 Reply

Charles Maxino May 28, 201& at 4:02 8M (onderf l article, i ha!e some B estion to as*s...1= is the drift per le!el reported by etabs already the interstory drift or is the drift relati!e to the baseC ,f it is relati!e to the base then (e still ha!e to s btract the t(o adDacent drifts per floor in order to -et the interstory drift. 2= ,s the drift reported by etabs is the displacement at the center of mass or it is the ma% drift of a partic lar floor considerinnode displacement. , as*ed this beca se the specific reB irement of the calc lation of seismic drift as per A1:.E05 is that the drift to be considered sho ld be at the center of mass. , ha!e been (or*in- (ith Midas 5en and this drift calc lation is a tomatic yo D st ha!e to set the limits for both seismic and (ind drifts and the pro-ram (ill D st a tomatically calc late the drift

requirement and it will show a remark of ok and fail and you also have the option to calculate the drift at the center of mass or the maximum displacement that will normally occur around the perimeter node. Reply Replies Rana Waseem May 28, 201 at 11!"# $M

1% it depends in &'()* output..you can either select total displacement relative to +ase and su+tract the displacements for the lower stories to ,et inter-story drift 2% a,ain refer to step 1...all output options are there in &'()* . you can select whatever you want to report... % like midas ,en now in new eta+s 201 there is +etter option to control and report drifts.. Reply

Charles Maxino May 28, 201 at 10!". $M /n my office we strictly follow all the code provisions specially the requirements for drift. 0or seismic drift we are not usin, only &12 and &13 +ut instead we used &124or &13%5"6&cc7(x. 'he codes 8)9 :# and (*9& require to include not only the translational displacement +ut also torsional displacement. *o the correct load to check for the drift must +e the static seismic load plus the "6 accidental torsion multiplied +y the torsional amplification factor (x. Reply Replies Rana Waseem May 28, 201 at 11!"8 $M

yeah the provisions should +e followed strictly..,ood practice actually in &'()* when definin, load cases..."6 &cc is already included so you dont have to include it a,ain. 0or irre,ularities and torsional amplification..yes you have to check it manually as &'()* is ;ust an anlysis packa,e..rest is upon en,ineer..

Charles Maxino <une 1, 201 at .! 2 (M 'here are some functionalities in Midas =en which are not present yet in &'()* +ut / don>t know a+out the latest version of &'()* which is version 201 . ?ne of them is the automatic calculation of torsional amplification factor (x aside from the automatic calculation of vertical and hori@ontal irre,ularities. 'he one function for us that is very essential is the automatic calculation of story shear force ratio / don>t know if &'()* has this function already. Reply

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