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Structural Concepts in Seismic Design

A: How Buildings Resist Earthquakes

Earthquake forces can act in all directions. Unlike gravity loads that are transferred in a
downward direction, earthquake loads start at the supporting soil and are transmitted to
the building. The horizontal and vertical earthquake forces travel in different load paths
and may result in tension, shear compression, bending or torsion forces. Buildings
experience horizontal distortion when subjected to earthquake motion. When these
distortions get large, the damage can be catastrophic. Therefore, most buildings are
designed with lateral-force-resisting systems (or seismic systems), to resist the effects of
earthquake forces. In many cases seismic systems make a building stiffer against
horizontal forces, and thus minimize the amount of relative lateral movement and
consequently the damage. Seismic systems are usually designed to resist only forces that
result from horizontal ground motion, as distinct from vertical ground motion.
The combined action of seismic systems along the width and length of a building can
typically resist earthquake motion from any direction. Seismic systems differ from
building to building because the type of system is controlled to some extent by the basic
layout and structural elements of the building. Basically, seismic systems consist of
axial-, shear- and bending-resistant elements.
In wood-frame, stud-wall buildings, plywood siding is typically used to prevent excessive
lateral deflection in the plane of the wall. Without the extra strength provided by the
plywood, walls would distort excessively or rack, resulting in broken windows
and stuck doors. In older wood frame houses, this resistance to lateral loads is provided
by either wood or steel diagonal bracing.
The earthquake-resisting systems in modern steel buildings take many forms. In moment-
resisting steel frames, the connections between the beams and the columns are designed
to resist the rotation of the column relative to the beam. Thus, the beam and the column
work together and resist lateral movement and lateral displacement by bending. Steel
frames sometimes include diagonal bracing configurations, such as single diagonal
braces, cross-bracing and K-bracing. In braced frames, horizontal loads are
resisted through tension and compression forces in the braces with resulting changed
forces in the beams and columns. Steel buildings are sometimes constructed with
moment-resistant frames in one direction and braced frames in the other.
In concrete structures, shear walls are sometimes used to provide lateral resistance in the
plane of the wall, in addition to moment-resisting frames. Ideally, these shear walls are
continuous reinforced-concrete walls extending from the foundation to the roof of the
building. They can be exterior walls or interior walls. They are interconnected with the
rest of the concrete frame, and thus resist the horizontal motion of one floor relative to
another. Shear walls can also be constructed of reinforced masonry, using bricks or
concrete blocks.
How a building performs in an earthquake depends upon a few key building
characteristics described below:

B: Structural Building Elements The structural elements of a building that comprise the
'skeleton' supporting the rest of the building, includes the foundation, load-bearing walls,
beams, columns, floor system and roof system, as well as the connections between these
elements. To carry its own weight ("dead load"), live loads, and wind and earthquake
forces the building elements and connections are subjected to tension, compression,
shear, bending, and torsion. Buildings are primarily designed to resist vertical forces from
gravity. The roof and floor systems carry these vertical forces to the supporting beams.
The beams carry the forces to the columns and bearing walls, which then carry the forces
down to the foundation and the supporting soil. This process of carrying forces from the
roof down to the soil is known as a load path. The failure of any building element or
connection along the load path can lead to building damage or collapse.
C: Building Materials and Systems Performance Characteristics
Ductility. Under normal conditions, a building experiences elastic deformations,
deforming as force is applied and returning to its original shape when removed.
However, extreme earthquake forces may generate inelastic deformations in
which the element does not return to its original shape after the force is removed.
Ductility is the property of certain elements that have inelastic deformation before
failing. Building elements constructed with ductile materials have a "reserve
capacity" to resist earthquake overloads. Therefore, buildings constructed of
ductile elements, such as steel and adequately reinforced concrete, tend to
withstand earthquakes much better than those constructed of brittle materials such
as unreinforced masonry.
Strength and Stiffness. Strength is the property of an element to resist force.
Stiffness is the property of an element to resist displacement. When two elements
of different stiffnesses are forced to deflect the same amount, the stiffer element
will carry more of the total force because it takes more force to deflect it. When
stiff concrete and masonry elements are combined with more flexible steel or
wood elements, the concrete and masonry take more of the total force.
Bracing/Seismic Resistant Components. Four basic components provide
seismic resistance against lateral forces (Figure 3):

Quote:
Braced frames consist of beams, columns, and stiff diagonal braces that
perform like shear walls, but use less material.
Moment resistant frames (generally of steel or reinforced concrete)
consist of beams connected to one or more columns to carry multi-
dimensional earthquake forces.
Horizontal Diaphragms are floor and roof deck systems that carry
forces across the building to shear walls, braced frames, and/or columns.
 Shear walls are large structural walls placed in a building to carry forces
from the roof and floor systems to the supporting foundation, and into
the soils.

Cross walls are interior walls and partitions that are not necessarily
continuous to the foundations, but which are attached securely to two
floor diaphragms (the top side of a floor diaphragm to the underside of
the floor above) and that are stiff and strong enough to resist the
independent movement of the two connected diaphragms.
Connections. Strong building connections allow forces and displacements to be
transferred between vertical and horizontal building elements. In addition, strong
connections increase the overall structural building strength and stiffness by
allowing all of the building elements to act together as a unit. Inadequate
connections represent a weak link in the load path of the building and are a
common cause of earthquake building damage and collapse.
Damping. When a tuning fork strikes a surface, it vibrates back and forth at a
certain rate - this rate is known as its fundamental period. All objects, including
buildings, have their own unique fundamental period of vibration. Ground
shaking from an earthquake will cause vibrations in a building. If the ground
shaking matches the fundamental period of the building, the building will resonate
with the earthquake, causing the building vibrations to greatly increase. This can
lead to extensive building damage. "Damping" diminishes this resonance by
pulling the energy out of the system as heat - in the way that a shock absorber in a
car dampens a car's vibrations from bumps in the road. Damping is imparted to a
building by the cracking and inelastic movement of its structural elements, and it
can also be deliberately added by installing shock absorber-like devices into the
building's structure. In the first case, "controlled" damage at the onset of shaking
can reduce the likelihood of catastrophic damage as the shaking intensifies, and in
the second case, the damping devices work like vehicle shock absorbers to reduce
the response of the structure to a level below that at which post-elastic behavior
(and thus damage) will occur.
Weight Distribution. Buildings that are wide at their base and have most of their
weight distributed to their lowest floors generally fare better in earthquakes than
tall, top- heavy buildings which act like an inverted pendulum. Inverted pendulum
buildings usually experience greater displacements than those shorter and heavier
near the base.
Building Configuration. Square or rectangular buildings with floor plans with
symmetrically place lateral force resisting elements tend to perform better in
earthquakes than buildings composed of irregular shapes or 'those with large
foyers or lobbies that create a soft story condition. Buildings with irregular shapes
cannot distribute lateral forces evenly, resulting in torsional response that can
increase damage at key points in the building.
Foundation / Soil Characteristics. The underlying geology of the site can also
have a significant effect on the amplitude of the ground motion there. Soft, loose
soils tend to amplify the ground motion and in many cases a resonance effect can
make it last longer. In such circumstances, building damage can be accentuated.
 In the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, damage was greater in the areas where
buildings were constructed on loose, natural and manmade fill and less at the tops
of the rocky hills. Even more dramatic was the 1985 Mexico City earthquake.
This earthquake occurred 250 miles from the city, but very soft soils beneath the
city amplified the ground shaking enough to cause weak mid-rise buildings to
collapse (see Figure F-5). Resonance (see below) of the building frequency with
the amplified ground shaking frequency played a significant role.

Quote:
Sites with rock close to or at the surface will be less likely to amplify motion,
and with such sites, generally, the farther from the source of an earthquake, the
less severe the motion. The type of motion felt also changes with distance from
the earthquake. Close to the source the motion tends to be violent rapid shaking,
whereas farther away the motion is normally more of a swaying nature.
Buildings will respond differently to the rapid shaking than to the swaying
motion.. Buildings can be severely damaged when the soils that support the
building foundations shift, sink, slide, or liquefy. Optimally, structures should
not be located in areas with poor site conditions.
Resonance. Resonance was a major problem in the 1985 Mexico City earthquake,
in which the total collapse of many mid-rise buildings (Figure F-5) caused many
fatalities. Tall buildings at large distances from the earthquake source have a
small, but finite, probability of being subjected to ground motions containing
frequencies that can cause resonance. Where taller, more flexible, buildings are
susceptible to distant earthquakes (swaying motion) shorter and stiffer buildings
are more susceptible to nearby earthquakes (rapid shaking).

Redundancy. It is very beneficial for a rehabilitated lateral-force-resisting system to have

an appropriate level of redundancy, so that any localized failure of a few elements of the
system will not result in local collapse or instability. This should be considered when
developing rehabilitation designs.
Dr.N.Subramanian,Ph.D.,F.ASCE, M.ACI,

Maryland, USA

Posted via Email

START GROUP DEFINITION

MEMBER
_FLOOR0 [List of ground floor columns]
_FLOOR1 [List of 1st floor columns]
_FLOOR2 [List of 2nd floor columns]
_FLOOR3 [List of 3rd floor columns]
_FLOOR4 [List of 4th floor columns]
END GROUP DEFINITION
...

The loads, as usual

LOAD 1 DL - SELF & WALLS

...
LOAD 2 DL - SLABS
...
LOAD 3 DL - LIVE
...

Then the load combinations are to be made appropriately. This can be easily done using
Excel

LOAD COMB 4 1.5(DL+1*LL)

1 1.5 2 1.5 3 1.5
LOAD COMB 5 1.5(DL+0.9*LL)
1 1.5 2 1.5 4 1.35
LOAD COMB 6 1.5(DL+0.8*LL)
1 1.5 2 1.5 5 1.2
LOAD COMB 7 1.5(DL+0.7*LL)
1 1.5 2 1.5 6 1.05
LOAD COMB 8 1.5(DL+0.6*LL)
1 1.5 2 1.5 7 0.9
PERFORM ANALYSIS
UNIT MMS NEWTON

The concrete design is then to be done in sets, as follows:

1) Beams and columns of top floor

LOAD LIST 4
START CONCRETE DESIGN
CODE INDIAN
FC 20 ALL
FYMAIN 415 ALL
FYSEC 415 ALL
[Include other appropriate parameter listings]
DESIGN BEAM [List of beams]
DESIGN COLUMN _FLOOR4
END CONCRETE DESIGN

2) Columns of top but 1 floor

LOAD LIST 5
START CONCRETE DESIGN
CODE INDIAN
FC 20 ALL
FYMAIN 415 ALL
FYSEC 415 ALL
[Include other appropriate parameter listings]
DESIGN COLUMN _FLOOR3
END CONCRETE DESIGN

3) Columns of top but 2 floor... and so on

LOAD LIST 6
START CONCRETE DESIGN
CODE INDIAN
FC 20 ALL
FYMAIN 415 ALL
FYSEC 415 ALL
[Include other appropriate parameter listings]
DESIGN COLUMN _FLOOR2
END CONCRETE DESIGN

LOAD LIST 7
START CONCRETE DESIGN
CODE INDIAN
FC 20 ALL
FYMAIN 415 ALL
FYSEC 415 ALL
[Include other appropriate parameter listings]
DESIGN COLUMN _FLOOR1
END CONCRETE DESIGN

LOAD LIST 8
START CONCRETE DESIGN
CODE INDIAN
FC 20 ALL
FYMAIN 415 ALL
FYSEC 415 ALL
[Include other appropriate parameter listings]
DESIGN COLUMN _FLOOR0
END CONCRETE DESIGN

Regards,
Rahul Leslie
1st column: Number of Floors (Incliding the Roof) to be Carried by Member under
Consideration
2nd column: Reduction in Total Distributed Imposed Load on all Floors to be Carried by
the Member under Consideration (Percent)

And one more thing If you have used ETABS, youll know the option Reduce axial
loads only. Here also, if you want to design for full moment and reduce only axial
forces, you may use the MMAG command appropriately (Please check this, since haven't
have any experience of using MMAG statement).

Continuing from the last posting, (where FLOOR0 means ground floor, FLOOR1 means
1st floor, and so on)

2) Columns of top but 1 floor

LOAD LIST 5
START CONCRETE DESIGN
CODE INDIAN
FC 20 ALL
FYMAIN 415 ALL
FYSEC 415 ALL
[Include other appropriate parameter listings]
MMAG 1.111 _FLOOR3
DESIGN COLUMN _FLOOR3
END CONCRETE DESIGN

3) Columns of top but 2 floor... and so on

LOAD LIST 6
START CONCRETE DESIGN
CODE INDIAN
FC 20 ALL
FYMAIN 415 ALL
FYSEC 415 ALL
[Include other appropriate parameter listings]
MMAG 1.25 _FLOOR2
DESIGN COLUMN _FLOOR2
END CONCRETE DESIGN

LOAD LIST 7
START CONCRETE DESIGN
CODE INDIAN
FC 20 ALL
FYMAIN 415 ALL
FYSEC 415 ALL
[Include other appropriate parameter listings]
MMAG 1.428 _FLOOR1
DESIGN COLUMN _FLOOR1
END CONCRETE DESIGN

LOAD LIST 8
START CONCRETE DESIGN
CODE INDIAN
FC 20 ALL
FYMAIN 415 ALL
FYSEC 415 ALL
[Include other appropriate parameter listings]
MMAG 1.667 _FLOOR0
DESIGN COLUMN _FLOOR0
END CONCRETE DESIGN

Note:
1/1 = 1
1/0.9 = 1.111
1/0.8 = 1.25
1/0.7 = 1.429
1/0.6 = 1.667