Rucha S. Banginwar, M. R. Vyawahare, P. O.

Modani / International Journal of Engineering Research

and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: 2248-9622 www.ijera.com
Vol. 2, Issue 3, May-Jun 2012, pp.1439-1443
Effect of Plans Configurations on the Seismic Behaviour of the Structure
By Response Spectrum Method
Rucha S. Banginwar*, M. R. Vyawahare**, P. O. Modani***
* (Department of Civil Engineering, Babasaheb Naik College of Engineering Pusad, Amravati University,
Pusad-445 215, Yavatmal, Maharashtra, India
M.E.(Structural Engineering) Final Year)
** (Associate Professor in Department of Civil Engineering, Babasaheb Naik College of Engineering Pusad,
Amravati University, Pusad-445 215, Yavatmal, Maharashtra, India)
*** (Assistant Professor in Department of Civil Engineering, Babasaheb Naik College of Engineering Pusad,
Amravati University, Pusad-445 215, Yavatmal, Maharashtra, India)

ABSTRACT
The bahaviour of building during earthquake depends Sometimes the shape of building catches the eye of visitor,
critically on its overall shape, size and geometry. sometimes the structural system appeals, and in other
Building with simple geometry in plan have performed occasions both shape and structural system work together to
well during strong past earthquake but building with u, make the structure a Marvel. However, each of these choices
v, H & + shaped in plan have sustained significant of shapes and structure has significant bearing on the
damage. So the proposed project attempts to evaluate performance of building during strong earthquake.
the effect of plan configurations on the response of So the symmetry and regularity are usually recommended
structure by RSM(response spectrum method) for a sound design of earthquake resistant structure.
The Indian Standard Code (IS-Code) of practice IS-1893
(Part I: 2002) guidelines and methodology are used to
analyse the problem.
In this proposed work the study is carried on the effect
of difference geometrical configurations on the
behaviour of structure of the already constructed
building located in the same area during earthquake by
RSM in tis paper, more emphasis is made on the plan
configurations and is anlysed by RSM since the RSM
analysis provides a key information for real – world
application.

Keywords - Geometry, configurations, RSM, irregular

profiles, susceptible Fig. 1: Residential building
Earthquake resistant engineering emphasis the
1. INTRODUCTION inconvenience of using irregular plans, recommending
Buildings are the complex system and multiple items have instead the use of simple shapes. The effects that cause
to be considered at the moment of designing them. Hence at seismic action in irregular structures were observed in many
the planning stage itself, architects and structural engineers recent earthquake.(8)
must work together to ensure that the unfavourable features
are avoided and good building configuration is chosen. Structural Irregularity
“If we have a poor configuration to start with , all the Is defined by location at the resistant elements, walls,
engineers can do is to provide a band aid  improve a columns, joints with nonstructural elements, floor systems,
basically poor solution as best as he can. wall openings and geometric arrangement.
Conversely, if we start off with a good configuration and When irregular features are included in buildings, a
reasonable framing system, even a poor engineer cannot considerably higher level of engineering effort is required
harm its ultimate performance too much. But constructions may not be as good as one with simple architectural
can suffer diverse damages when they put under seismic features.
excitations, although for same structural configuration, Observations of structural damage due to strong earthquake
region, EQ damages in the systems are neither nor shows the class of building.
homogenous. A desire to create an aesthetic and functionally So the structure can be classified on the basis of irregularity.
efficient structure drives architects to conceive wonderful 1. Regular
and imaginative structures. 2. Moderately irregular

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 Rucha S. Banginwar, M. R. Vyawahare, P. O. Modani / International Journal of Engineering Research
and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: 2248-9622 www.ijera.com
Vol. 2, Issue 3, May-Jun 2012, pp.1439-1443
3. Strongly irregular 3. STRUCTURAL CONFIGURATIONS
Configuration plays an important role in the seismic
performance of structures subjected to earthquake actions.
Past earthquake reconnaissance has pointed towards the
observation that buildings with irregular configurations are
more vulnerable than their regular counterparts. To prevent
unfavourable failure modes adequate „Conceptual design‟ is
required at an early stage. In addition, through assessment of
Fig. 2: + shape building the structural configuration is vital to achieve adequate
seismic performance.
Structural configuration has two fundamental aspects”
 Overall form
 The types of lateral resisting system employed.
The impact of structural configuration in plan and elevation
on seismic performance depends on Building forms has to
be decided initially in the deisgn process. Different aspects
Fig. 3: C-shape building of building forms such as Height, Horizontal size,
Decisions made at the planning stage on building proportion and symmetry are discussed below.
configuration are more important since the wide range of Scale:
structural damages observed educative past earthquake “It is not possible to alter the size of a structure and its
across the world is very educative in identifying structural components and still retain the same structural behaviour”.
configurations that are desirable versus those which must be Height:
avoided. So the irregular structure needs a more careful Increasing the height of a building may be similar to
structural analysis to reach a suitable earthquake system. increasing the span of cantilever beam. As the build grows
For this reason small mistakes caused by infcorrect analysis taller there is a change in the level of response to the seismic
simpications of these structures could cause important force .the effect of an increase in height may be quiet
damages during earthquake and represents vulnerability disproportionate to the increase in seismic force itself.
conditions that are not quantified correctly in all occasions
by some simplified method such as Response Spectrum
Method (RSM).

2. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE
Dynamic analyses are more complex, both in concept as
well as in implementation than the simple and readily usable
codal formulas. That is why, most of the building designer
are increasingly depending on the codal formulae.
Most of the codes generally do not provide enough guidance
on when the code formulas should be abandoned in favour
of dynamic analysis, whether the dynamic response should
be determined by response History or response spectrum
analysis.
At present, many countries have their own building codes of
practice. These building codes give design requirements and
construction aspects of structures to reduce damage as well
earthquake resistance in simple buildings, but are
insufficient for buildings having special characteristics. The
buildings included in the later category are as follows.
 High rise buildings
 Long and narrow buildings
 Asymmetric buildings Fig. 4: Sky scrapper Building with irregularity
 Buildings with irregular configurations Horizontal Size
 Setback buildings It is easy to visualize the Overturning forces associated with
 Buildings with flexile first story height as a seismic problem, but large plan areas can also be
 Buildings with vertical structural irregularities, etc. detrimental. When the plan becomes extremely large, even
In the present study effect of various plan configurations on if it is symmetrical, simple shape. The building can have
the response (behaviour) of already constructed three trouble responding as one unit to earth vibration.
buildings of college will be studied with the help of Increase in length of building increases the stresses in a
response spectrum method and at the end out of these three floor working as a horizontal distribution diaphragm in a
buildings vulnerable building will be detected. transverse direction. The rigidity of the floor may not be
sufficient to redistribute the horizontal load during an
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 Rucha S. Banginwar, M. R. Vyawahare, P. O. Modani / International Journal of Engineering Research
and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: 2248-9622 www.ijera.com
Vol. 2, Issue 3, May-Jun 2012, pp.1439-1443
earthquake from weaker or damaged supporting elements of produce torsion and stress concentration and therefore the
the building to stronger elements or those with minor symmetrical forms are preferred to the asymmetrical ones.
damage. As the absolute size of the structure increases, the This suggest that when good seismic performance has to be
range of cost-efficient configurations of system is reduced. achieved along with maximum economy of design and
construction, the simple, regular and symmetrical shapes are
much preferred.(8)

4. RESPONSE SPECTRUM METHOD

A response spectrum is simply a plot of the peak or steady –
state response (displacement, velocity or acceleration) of a
series of oscillators of varying natural frequency, that are
forced into motion by the same base vibration or shock.
The RSM plays an important role in practical analysis of
Fig. 5: Buildings with one their overall sizes much large or multistory buildings for earthquake motions. The maximum
much smaller do not perform well during earthquake response of the building is estimated directly from the
elastic or inelastic design spectrum characterizing the design
earthquake for the site and considering the performance
criteria for the building.(1-3)
Proportion
The resulting estimates of maximum forces and
In seismic design, the proportions of a building may be more
deformations provide a basis for preliminary design of
important than its absolute size. For tall buildings the
buildings. Furthermore, most building code specifications
slenderness ratio of a building is one of the important
for earthquake forces are based on simplifications of the
considerations than just the height alone. The more slender
response spectrum method of analysis.
the building is worse are the overturning effects of an
The response spectrum method (RSM) was introduced in
earthquake and greater are the earthquake stresses.
1932 in the doctoral dissertation of Maurice Anthony Biot at
Some experts suggest limiting the height/depth ratio to 3 or
Coltech. It is an approach to finding earthquake response
4 to safeguard the building against overturning.
structures using waves or vibrational mode shapes.
The concept of the “Response Spectrum” was applied in
design requirements in the mid 20th century for example in
building codes in the state of California. (Hudson, 1956;
Trifunac and Todorovska, 2008). It came into widespread
use as the primary theoretical tool in earthquake engineering
in the 1970s when strong-motion accelerograph data become
widely available. The response spectrum involves
simplifying assumptions; however, it can yield important
information S.a. effect of varying damping.
Fig. 6: Unsymmetrical buildings Final goal of using a method such as RS analysis is to
design mechanism that actively or passively absorb energy
Symmetry associated with an earthquake for e.g. seismic isolation
The plan shape of a building should be as simple as involves mounting a building on bearings with low
possible. The theoretical optimum shape is a round tower, horizontal stiffness, thus increasing the natural vibration
where as long buildings, L-shaped or zigzag shape or frequency and reducing acceleration.
buildings with attached wings are undesirable in the high Thus RSM provides key information for real-world
risk areas and therefore should be avoided. applications and is the primary tool in engineering
seismology.
RSM is very useful tool for earthquake engineering for
analyzing the performance of structures and equipments in
earthquake. Since many behave principally as simple
oscillators (also known as single degree of freedom
systems). Thus if natural frequency is find out then the peak
response of the building can be estimated by regarding the
value from the ground response spectrum for the appropriate
frequency.
Fig. 7: Symmetrical building In the 1982 Newmark & Hall describe how they developed
an “Idealized” seismic response spectrum based on a range
The term of symmetry denotes a geometrical property of the of response spectra generated for available earthquake
plan configuration, whereas the structural symmetry means record. This was then further developed into a design
that the centres of mass and the centre of resistance are response spectrum for use in structural design and this basic
located at the same point. In a symmetrical configuration the form with some modifications is now the basis for structural
eccentrically between the center of mass and resistance will design in seismic regions throughout the world.

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 Rucha S. Banginwar, M. R. Vyawahare, P. O. Modani / International Journal of Engineering Research
and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: 2248-9622 www.ijera.com
Vol. 2, Issue 3, May-Jun 2012, pp.1439-1443
Earthquake engineers prefer to report interaction between
ground acceleration and structural systems through.

5. PROBLEM
Three eight storey reinforced concrete frame buildings of
three different configurations have been considered &
analyzed with the help of ETAB software by using
Response spectrum method.
Following properties are considered for three buildings
naming building B1, B2, B3.
1. All the three buildings are having approximately equal
area, spacing of the frame =3-3.2m,spacing of columns
=10-11m.
2. Height of building =25.1m
3. Size of beams=300*750mm
4. Size of columns=300*600mm
5. Seismic zone factor=0.36
6. Type of soil =medium
7. Nature of three buildings is explained as follows-
Type of building Nature of building
B1 Regular profile Fig. 9: Plan of B2 building
B2 Moderately irregular
B3 Severely irregular

Plan of all the B1, B2, B3 buildings are as follows:

Fig. 10: Plan of B3 building

6. RESULT

Table 1: Story shear data of buildings of B1, B2 and B3

Fig. 8: Plan of B1 Building

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 Rucha S. Banginwar, M. R. Vyawahare, P. O. Modani / International Journal of Engineering Research
and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: 2248-9622 www.ijera.com
Vol. 2, Issue 3, May-Jun 2012, pp.1439-1443
Table 2: Displacement data of buildings of B1, B2 and B3 9. CONCLUSION
for combination 1
From the experimental investigations carried out following
conclusions can be drawn -
1. The plan configurations of structure has significant
impact on the seismic response of structure in terms of
displacement, story drift, story shear.
2. Effect of Area on STORY SHEAR-It was observed that
the story shear in building no. 2 was more though the
irregularity in the plan configuration was less as
compared to building no. 3.
3. Torsion- Torsion was observed only in building no. 3 as
the level of irregularity is maximum. The building is
symmetrical about ONE axis but the Orientation of
block is oblique.
Table 3: Displacement data of buildings of B1, B2 and B3 4. Displacement – Large displacement were observed in
for combination 2 the building no. 3 and least displacement were observed
in building no. 1. It indicates that building with severe
irregularity shows maximum displacement and storey
drift.

REFERENCES

1] Dr. O. R. Jaiswal, “Seismic Response of Building

Frame with Irregular Profile”, 2000.
2] Sharon L. Wood, (1992), “Seismic Response of R/c
Frames With Irregular Profiles”, Journal of Structural
Engineering (JOSE)”, Vol. 118, No. 2.
3] Chopra A.K. & Cruz E. F., “Elastic Earthquake
Table 4: Storey drift data of buildings of B1, B2 and B3 for Response of Building Frames”.
combination 1 4] Moehle, J. P. (1984), “Seismic Analysis of E/c Frame
Wall Structure”.
5] IS 1893 (1984), “Criteria For Earthquake Resistant
Design of Structures”, (Third Edition), Bureau of Indian
Standards, New Delhi.
6] Moehle, J. P. (1984), “Seismic Response of Vertically
Irregular Structures”, JOSE (ASCE), Vol. 110. No. 9,
2002-2014.
7] J. H. Cassis and E-Cornejo, “Influence of Vertical
Irregularities in the Response of Earthquake Resistant
Structures”.
8] Pankaj Agrawal and Manish Shrikhande, “Earthquake
Resistant Design of Structures”, PHI Learning Private
Limited, May 2010, pp. 234-238.
Table 5: Storey drift data of buildings of B1, B2 and B3 for
combination 2

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