Module 2

Syllabus
• Seismic Damage in RC buildings: Causes – Damage to Structural and
nonstructural Elements
• Seismic Resistant Building Architecture: Seismic effects on
structures-Inertia forces- deformations-horizontal and vertical
shaking-Importance of architectural features-effects of irregularity-
Lateral load resisting systems
• Building Characteristics-Mode shapes and fundamental period,
Building frequency and ground period, Damping, Ductility, Seismic
weight, Hyperstaticity, Non structural elements, foundation
soil/Liquefaction, foundations-Quality of construction and materials.
IDENTIFICATION OF DAMAGE IN RC
BUILDINGS
• Identification of a single cause of damage to buildings is not possible.
• There are combined reasons, which are responsible for multiple damages.
• It is difficult to classify the damage, and even more difficult to relate it in
quantitative manner.
• This is because of the dynamic character of the seismic action and the
inelastic response of the structures.
• The principal causes of damage to buildings are soft stories, floating
columns, mass irregularities, poor quality of material, faulty construction
practices, inconsistent seismic performance, soil and foundation effect,
pounding of adjacent structures and inadequate ductile detailing in
structural components
Soft Storey Failure
• Multi-storeyed buildings in metropolitan cities require open taller first storey for parking of
vehicles and/or for retail shopping, large space for meeting room or a banking hall owing to
lack of horizontal space and high cost.
• Due to this functional requirement, the first storey has lesser strength and stiffness as
compared to upper stories, which are stiffened by masonry infill walls.
• This characteristic of building construction creates “weak” or “soft” storey problems in
multi-storey buildings.
• Increased flexibility of first storey results in extreme deflections, which in turn, leads to
concentration of forces at the second storey connections accompanied by large plastic
deformations.
• In addition, most of the energy developed during the earthquake is dissipated by the
columns of the soft stories. In this process the plastic hinges are formed at the ends of
columns, which transform the soft storey into a mechanism.
• In such cases the collapse is unavoidable. Therefore, the soft stories deserve a special
contd
• It has been observed from the survey that the damage is due to
collapse and buckling of columns especially where parking places are
not covered appropriately.
• On the contrary, the damage is reduced considerably where the
parking places are covered adequately.
• It is recognised that this type of failure results from the combination
of several other unfavourable reasons, such as torsion, excessive mass
on upper floors, P–D effects and lack of ductility in the bottom storey
Floating Columns
• Most of the buildings in Ahmedabad and Gandhidham, are covering the maximum
possible area on a plot within the available bylaws.
• Since balconies are not counted in Floor Space Index (FSI), buildings have balconies
overhanging in the upper stories beyond the column footprint area at the ground
storey, overhangs upto 1.2 m to 1.5 m in plan are usually provided on each side of the
building.
• In the upper stories, the perimeter columns of the ground storey are discontinued,
and floating columns are provided along the overhanging perimeter of the building.
• These floating columns rest at the tip of the taper overhanging beams without
considering the increased vulnerability of lateral load resisting system due to vertical
discontinuity.
• This type of construction does not create any problem under vertical loading
conditions
contd
• But during an earthquake a clear load path is not available for transferring the
lateral forces to the foundation. Lateral forces accumulated in upper floors during
the earthquake have to be transmitted by the projected cantilever beams.
• Overturning forces thus developed overwhelm the columns of the ground floor.
• Under this situation the columns begin to deform and buckle, resulting in total
collapse.
• This is because of primary deficiency in the strength of ground floor columns,
projected cantilever beam and ductile detailing of beam-column joints.
• Ductile connection at the exterior beam-column joint is indispensable for
transferring these forces.
 Plan and Mass Irregularity
• Figure shows the failure of two most famous multi-storeyed buildings, i.e., Mansi
Complex (Figure a) and Shikhar Apartment (Figure b) during Bhuj earthquake with
their exposed isolated footings (Figure c and d).
• Mansi Complex is a residential building in Vastrapura village consisting of two blocks
A and B with 40 units in each block. Shikhar Apartment is also a newly constructed
residential complex approximately one year old in Vezalpur under Ahmedabad Urban
Development Authority (AUDA) consisting of four blocks with 40 flats in each.
• Both the buildings are G+10 and are located in the satellite town of Ahmedabad. The
plans of both the buildings are irregular. The Mansi Complex has C shaped plan while
the Shikhar Apartment has U shaped plan with no expansion or separation joint as
reported (Sinvhal et. al. 2001).
• In A-Block of Mansi Complex the staircase was in the central portion of the building
while in the D-Block of Shikhar Apartment the staircase was located at the extreme
end. Irregularities in plan (C and U shape), mass, stiffness and strength result in
significant torsional response.
 contd
• These associated torsional effects may be attributed to collapse of buildings. Presence of a
massive swimming pool at 10th floor, a fancy penthouse and some rooms that were not
mentioned in original plan are also believed to be the cause of failure of Mansi Complex.
• Excess mass leads to increase in lateral inertia forces, reduced ductility of vertical load resisting
elements and increased propensity towards collapse due to P–D effect. Irregularity of mass
distribution results in irregular response and complex dynamics.
• It may be inferred from the characteristic-sway mode of a building that the excessive mass on
higher floors produce more unfavourable effects than those at lower floors.
• The other reasons that contribute to failure are: effect of soft stories, position of service core
between the two wings, wall and staircase separation, inadequate connection with slabs at each
floor and improper framing system.
• The column dimension in one direction is relatively high as compared to other direction. The
typical size of the column of Mansi Complex in A-block is 80 cm ¥ 27.5 cm and 80 cm ¥ 25 cm in B-
Block. The exposed foundation of one column of collapsed portion of the building shows the
isolated footing of approximate size of 2 m ¥ 2 m in plan and 60 cm deep with no tie beams.
• The failure of Shikhar apartment occurred because of column shear failure, poor quality of
construction material, and unsymmetrical location of lift, leading to the torsional effect.
Poor Quality of Construction Material
and Corrosion of Reinforcement
• There are numerous instances in which faulty construction practices and
lack of quality control contributed to the damage.
• In the cement-sand ratio, the ratio of sand was dangerously high. It also
appeared that recycled steel was used as reinforcement.
• Himgiri Apartment is now a pile of rubble as a result of poor quality of
construction materials.
• Many buildings are damaged due to spalling of concrete by the corrosion of
embedded reinforcing bars.
• The corrosion is related to insufficient concrete cover, poor concrete
placement and porous concrete.
• Several buildings constructed about 5 to 10 years ago were damaged due
to lack of quality control.
• It is reported that the water supply in the outer part of the city is through
ground water, which is salty in taste and the same water is used in
preparing the concrete mix for construction. The presence of salts may also
have affected the quality of concrete
Pounding of Buildings
• Although the number of buildings damaged by pounding is small, yet there are few
examples in which the primary cause of damage in buildings is due to hammering of
adjacent buildings.
• Anand building, G+5, (Figure 13.9) at Bhuj is an example of pounding failure. Pounding is
the result of irregular response of adjacent buildings of different heights and of different
dynamic characteristics.
• When the floors of adjacent buildings are at different elevations, the floor of each
building acts like rams, battering the columns of the other building.
• When one of the buildings is higher than the other, the building of lower height acts as a
base for the upper part of the adjacent taller building.
• The low height building receives an unexpected load while the taller building suffers
from a major stiffness discontinuity at the level of the top of the lower building.
• Pounding may also occur because of non-compliance of codal provisions particularly for
lateral and torsional stiffness and cumulative tilting due to foundation movement
Inconsistent Seismic Performance of
Buildings
• It is evident that the earthquake did not affect all the structures uniformly. The dynamic
characteristics of buildings are one of the predominant factors. The severity of damage
varied dramatically, with total collapse of buildings in some cases to minor damage in nearby
buildings.
• Swaminarayan Higher Secondary School in Mani Nagar at Ahmedabad, a four-storey RC
building, collapsed (Figure a), while nearby buildings suffered minor damage.
• Similarly B-Block of Mansi Complex in satellite town sustained only minor damage while the
adjacent half portion of the A-Block completely collapsed (Figure b).
• A multi-storeyed RC building, under construction, across the road from Shikhar Apartment
escaped damage, while D-Block of Shikhar Apartment collapsed.
• In some cases the buildings appeared to be identical but the degree of damage varied
significantly.
• Possible explanations for such behaviour could be workmanship, detailing practices, quality
of material, design, etc.
contd
• More than two-thirds of reinforced concrete buildings, which got
collapsed, were recently constructed.
• Shradha Apartment, a housing society in Ahmedabad’s posh Fatehpura
area barely six months old, came down.
• Other buildings in the same area, of less than two years vintage, have
also collapsed.
• It has also been observed that most of the buildings that collapsed lie
along the old path of Sabarmati river passing through the city.
• The south part of city, especially the Mani Nagar area, where majority of
damages were observed falls between two lakes, indicating the presence
of either poor soil strata or possible construction on reclaimed land
DAMAGE TO STRUCTURAL
ELEMENTS
• Figure shows failure in reinforced concrete columns in reinforced concrete buildings. Oblong
cross section, a space left at the top of column called ‘topi’ during casting and relatively slender
column sections compared with beam sections are the main structural defects in columns.
• These columns are neither designed nor detailed for ductility. Lack of confinement due to large
tie spacing, insufficient development length, inadequate splicing of all column bars at the same
section, hook configurations of reinforcement do not comply with ductile detailing practices.
• Figures a and b show the failure at the top and bottom of the column due to poor quality of
concrete, the inadequate spacing of ties in the critical areas and the presence of strong beams.
• Crushing of the compression zone is manifested first by spalling of the concrete cover to the
reinforcement; subsequently the concrete core expands and crushes.
• This phenomenon is usually accompanied by buckling of bars in compression and by hoop
fracture. The opening of the ties and the disintegration of concrete lead to shortening of the
column under the action of axial force.
• This type of damage is serious as the column not only loses its stiffness but also loses its ability
to carry vertical loads
contd
• Buildings, which were inspected during the team’s visit, have been found
with little evidence of failure of beams. There are numerous cases in which
the beam- column joints of multi-storeyed buildings have damaged.
• Figure (a) shows an example of damage at beam-column joint in a
reinforced concrete building.
• One typical feature of joints constructed in an RC building is shown in
Figure (b), where beams of different cross sections meet at the column
faces at the same floor level.
• Inadequacy of reinforcement in beam-column joints, absence of confining
hoop reinforcement, inappropriate location of bar splices in columns are
common causes of failure of beam-column joints
• Figures 13.13(a) and 13.13(b) show cracking of reinforced concrete
slab and beam slab joints in buildings.
• It is mainly due to widening of existing micro cracks, which are
formed either because of bending action or temperature/shrinkage.
These cracks are further widened and visible due to strong ground
shaking.
• Damage in slab is generally not considered to be dangerous for the
stability of the structure. However, it creates serious functional and
aesthetic problems
DAMAGE TO NON-STRUCTURAL
PANEL ELEMENTS
• Damage to Infill Walls
o Masonry infill walls are used as interior partitions and as exterior walls to form
a part of the building envelope in multi-storeyed buildings.
o In general design practices in India, the strength and stiffness of infill walls are
ignored with the assumption of conservative design.
o In actual, infill walls add considerably to the strength and rigidity of the
structures and their negligence will cause failure of many of multi-storeyed
buildings.
o The failure is basically due to stiffening effect of infill panels which is cause of
(i) unequal distribution of lateral forces in the different frames and
overstressing of some of the building frames; (ii) soft storey or weak storey; (iii)
short column or captive column effect; (iv) torsional forces; (v) cracking of the
• During the excitation of the structure, the reinforced concrete frame begins to deform,
and initially the first cracks appear on the plaster along the line of contact of the
masonry infill with the frame.
• As the deformation of the frame becomes larger, the cracks penetrate into the
masonry, and are manifested by the detachment of the masonry infill from the frame.
• Subsequently, diagonal cracks (X shaped) appear because of the strut action of the
infill. Figure 13.14(a) shows an example of cracking of infill wall in a residential building
of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) at Ahmedabad.
• To avoid this type of failure, either interaction of infill wall with the frame should be
considered in design or a movable joint between infill and frame should be provided.
• Sometimes perimeter infill walls are pierced with many closely spaced windows.
• The columns in between these piers may be called captive columns like a short column.
• A captive column is full storey slender column whose clear height is reduced by its
part-height contact with a relatively stiff non-structural element, such as a masonry
infill wall, which constrains its lateral deformation over the height of contact
contd
• The shear required to develop flexural yield in the effectively
shortened column is substantially higher than shear required
developing flexural yield of full-length column.
• If the designer has not considered this effect of the infill, shear failure
may occur before flexural yield and often fail in brittle manner (Figure
13.14b).
• The cracking in ‘captive’ column generally initiates from window
headers and sill levels
Damage to Exterior Walls
• Figures 13.15(a) and 13.15(b) illustrate characteristic examples of damage
to exterior walls that are poorly connected with the RC frame. These walls
are subjected to out-of-plane vibrations
• This form of construction of large exterior walls creates a weak plane
around the perimeter.
• When subjected to intense shaking, these large un-reinforced masonry
panels confined by stiff frame members have a tendency to resist large
out-of-plane vibrations with little sign of distress.
• When the flexure strength of these panels becomes insufficient to resist
these forces, the entire infill panels fail.
• The magnitude of damage is found to be dependent on the quality of
materials and method of construction.
Effect of Structural Irregularities on the
Performance of RC Buildings during Earthquakes
• The IS: 1893 (Part 1): 2002 has recommended building configuration system in
Section 7 for the better performance of RC buildings during earthquakes.
• The building configuration has been described as regular or irregular in terms of
size and shape of the building, arrangement of structural elements and mass.
• Regular building configurations are almost symmetrical (in plan and elevation)
about the axis and have uniform distribution of the lateral force-resisting structure
such that, it provides a continuous load path for both gravity and lateral loads.
• A building that lacks symmetry and has discontinuity in geometry, mass, or load
resisting elements is called irregular.
• These irregularities may cause interruption of force flow and stress
concentrations. Asymmetrical arrangements of mass and stiffness of elements may
cause a large torsional force (where the centre of mass does not coincide with the
centre of rigidity)
• The section 7 of IS 1893 (Part 1): 2002 enlists the irregularity in
building configuration system. These irregularities are categorised in
two types
• (i) vertical irregularities referring to sudden change of strength,
stiffness, geometry and mass results in irregular distribution of forces
and/or deformation over the height of building and
• (ii) horizontal irregularities which refer to asymmetrical plan shapes
(e.g. L-, T-, U-, F-) or discontinuities in the horizontal resisting
elements (diaphragms) such as cut-outs, large openings, re-entrant
corners and other abrupt changes resulting in torsion, diaphragm
deformations and stress concentration.
1.VERTICAL IRREGULARITIES
• 1.1Vertical Discontinuities in Load Path
• One of the major contributors to structural damage in structures during strong
earthquake is the discontinuities/irregularities in the load path or load transfer.
• The structure should contain a continuous load path for transfer of the seismic
force, which develops due to accelerations of individual elements, to the ground.
• Failure to provide adequate strength and toughness of individual elements in
the system, or failure to tie individual elements together can result in distress or
complete collapse of the system.
• Therefore, all the structural and non-structural elements must be adequately
tied to the structural system.
• The load path must be complete and sufficiently strong.
• The general load path is as follows: earthquake forces, which originate
in all the elements of the building are delivered through structural
connections to horizontal diaphragms.
• The diaphragms distribute these forces to vertical resisting
components such as columns, shear walls, frames and other vertical
elements in the structural system which transfer the forces into the
foundation.
• The diaphragms must have adequate stiffness to transmitting these
forces.
Seismic forces on the elements of shear
wall building system
• The examples of load path irregularities are, discontinuous columns,
shear walls, bracing, frames, that arise a floating box type situation
(Figures).
• In the case of columns or shear walls that do not continue upto the
ground but end at an upper level, shear is induced to overturning forces
to another resisting element of a lower level.
• This imposition of overturning forces overwhelms the columns of lower
level through connecting elements. Therefore, the most critical region
of damage is the connecting element (link between discontinuous
column to lower level column) and lower level columns.
• Therefore, the primary concern in load path irregularities is regarding
the strength of lower level columns and strength of the connecting
beams that support the load of discontinuous frame.
(a) Floating box
construction in
residential building in
Ahmedabad, India;
(b) (b) Discontinuous
shear wall.
• The failure due to discontinuity of vertical elements of the lateral load
resisting system has been among the most notable and spectacular.
• Example of discontinuous shear wall is the Olive View Hospital, which
nearly collapsed due to excessive deformation in the first two stories
during the 1972 San Fernando earthquake and was subsequently
demolished
1.2Irregularity in Strength and
Stiffness
• A “weak” storey is defined as one in which the storey’s lateral strength is less than 80
percent of that in the storey above.
• The storey’s lateral strength is the total strength of all seismic resisting elements sharing
the storey shear for the direction under consideration i.e. the shear capacity of the column
or the shear walls or the horizontal component of the axial capacity of the diagonal braces.
• The deficiency that usually makes a storey weak is inadequate strength of frame columns.
A “soft storey is one in which the lateral stiffness is less than 70% of that in the storey
immediately above, or less than 80% of the combined stiffness of the three stories above”
(Figure).
• The essential characteristic of a “weak” or “soft” storey consists of a discontinuity of
strength or stiffness, which occurs at the second storey connections.
• This discontinuity is caused by lesser strength, or increased flexibility, the structure results
in extreme deflections in the first storey of the structure, which in turn results in
concentration of forces at the second storey connections. The result is a concentration of
inelastic action.
• The soft storey concept has technical and functional advantages over the
conventional construction.
• First, is the reduction in spectral acceleration and base shear due to increase of
natural period of vibration of structure as in a base isolated structure.
• However, the price of this force reduction is paid in the form of an increase in
structural displacement and inter-storey drift, thus entailing a significant P-D
effect, which is a threat to the stability of the structure
• Secondly, a taller first storey is sometimes necessitated for parking of vehicles
and/ or retail shopping, large space for meeting room or a banking hall
• Due to this functional requirement, the first storey has lesser stiffness of
columns as compared to stiff upper floor frames, which are generally
constructed with masonry infill walls.
1.3Mass Irregularities
• Mass irregularities are considered to exist where the effective mass of any storey
is more than 200% of the effective mass of an adjacent storey (Figure 14.8).
• The effective mass is the real mass consisting of the dead weight of the floor plus
the actual weight of partition and equipment. Excess mass can lead to increase in
lateral inertial forces, reduced ductility of vertical load resisting elements, and
increased tendency towards collapse due to P-D effect.
• Irregularity of mass distribution in vertical and horizontal planes can result in
irregular responses and complex dynamics. The characteristic-swaying mode of a
building during an earthquake implies that masses placed in the upper stories of
building produce considerably more unfavourable effects than masses placed
lower down.
• The centre of gravity of lateral forces is shifted above the base in the case of
heavy masses in upper floors resulting in large bending moments
• Massive roofs and heavy plant rooms at high level are therefore to be
discouraged where possible.
• Where mass irregularities exist, check the lateral-force resisting
elements using a dynamic analysis for a more realistic lateral load
distribution of the base shear.
1.4 Vertical Geometric Irregularity
• A vertical setback is a geometric irregularity in a vertical plane. It is
considered, when the horizontal dimension of the lateral force resisting
system in any storey is more than 150% of that in an adjacent storey
(Figure 14.9). The setback can also be visualised as a vertical re-entrant
corner.
• The general solution of a setback problem is the total seismic separation
in plan through separation section, so that portions of the building are
free to vibrate independently.
• When the building is not separated, check the lateral-force-resisting
elements using a dynamic analysis.
1.5Proximity of Adjacent Buildings
• Pounding damage is caused by hitting of two buildings constructed in close proximity
with each other.
• Pounding may result in irregular response of adjacent buildings of different heights due
to different dynamic characteristics.
• This problem arises when buildings are built without separation right upto property
lines in order to make maximum use of the space. When floor of these buildings are
constructed of the same height, damage due to pounding usually is not serious.
• If this is not the case, there are two problems. When the floors of adjacent buildings
are at different elevations, the floor of each structure can act like rams, battering the
columns of the other building.
• When one of the buildings is higher than the other, the lower building can act as a base
for the upper part of the higher building; the lower building receives an unexpected
large lateral load while the higher building suffers from a major stiffness discontinuity at
the level of the top of the lower building.
• Pounding may also be the result of a combination of many other
factors such as insufficient separation between adjacent buildings,
different dynamic characteristics of adjacent structures, the
unexpected severity of the ground motion, non-compliance with code
provisions, particularly for lateral and torsional stiffness due to
inadequate building configuration and structural framing system, and
cumulative tilting due to foundation movement.
• Damage due to pounding can be minimized by drift control, building
separation, and aligning floors in adjacent buildings
PLAN CONFIGURATION PROBLEMS
• Torsion Irregularities
• Torsion irregularity shall be considered when floor diaphragms are rigid in their own plan
in relation to the vertical structural elements that resist the lateral forces.
• Torsion irregularity is considered to exist when the maximum storey drift, computed
with design eccentricity, at one end of the structure transverse to an axis is more than
1.2 times of the average of the storey drifts at the two ends of the structures
• The lateral-force-resisting elements should be a well-balanced system that is not
subjected to significant torsion. Significant torsion will be taken as the condition where
the distance between the storey’s centre of rigidity and storey’s centre of mass is greater
than 20% of the width of the structure in either major plan dimension.
• Torsion or excessive lateral deflection is generated in asymmetrical buildings, or eccentric
and asymmetrical layout of the bracing system that may result in permanent set or even
partial collapse
• Torsion is most effectively resisted at point farthest away from the centre of twist, such
as at the corners and perimeter of the buildings.
Re-entrant Corners
• The re-entrant, lack of continuity or “inside” corner is the common characteristic of overall
building configurations that, in plan, assume the shape of an L, T, H, +, or combination of
these shapes occurs due to lack of tensile capacity and force concentration
• According to IS 1893 (Part 1): 2002, plan configurations of a structure and its lateral force
resisting system contain re-entrant corners, where both projections of the structure
beyond the re-entrant corner are greater than 15% of its plan dimension in the given
direction.
• The re-entrant corners of the buildings are subjected to two types of problems.
• The first is that they tend to produce variations of rigidity, and hence differential motions
between different parts of the building, resulting in a local stress concentration at the
notch of the re-entrant corner
• The second problem is torsion. In Figure, an L-shaped building is subjected to a ground
motion of Alaska earthquake, 1964 in north-south direction; attempt to move differently
at their notch, pulling and pushing each other. So the stress concentrations are high at the
notch.
• The magnitude of the induced forces will depend on mass of building,
structural system, length of the wings and their aspect ratios and height
of the wings and their height/depth ratios.
• Examples of damage to re-entrant corner buildings are common and
can be identified in Kanto earthquake 1923, Santa Barbara earthquake
1925.
• To avoid this type of damage, either provide a separation joint
between two wings of buildings or tie the building together strongly in
the system of stress concentration and locate resistance elements to
increase the tensile capacity at re-entrant corner.
Non-parallel Systems
• The vertical load resisting elements are not parallel or symmetrical about the
major orthogonal axis of the lateral-force resisting system (Figure).
• These situations are often faced by architects. This condition results in a high
probability of torsional forces under a ground motion, because the centre of
mass and resistance does not coincide.
• This problem is often exaggerated in the triangular or wedge shaped buildings
resulting from street inter-sections at anacute angle.
• The narrower portion of the building will tend to be more flexible than the
wider ones, which will increase the tendency of torsion.
• To design these types of buildings, special care must be exercised to reduce
the effect of torsion or to increase torsional resistance of the narrow parts of
the building.
Diaphragm Discontinuity
• The diaphragm is a horizontal resistance element that transfer forces
between vertical resistance elements.
• The diaphragm discontinuity may occur with abrupt variations in
stiffness, including those having cut-out or open areas greater than 50%
of the gross enclosed diaphragm area, or change in effective diaphragm
stiffness of more than 50% from one storey to the next (Figure 14.15a).
• The diaphragm acts as a horizontal beam, and its edge acts as flanges. It
is obvious that opening cut in tension flange of a beam will seriously
weaken its load carrying capacity. In a number of buildings there has
been evidence of roof diaphragms, which is caused by tearing of the
diaphragm
Inertia Forces on structures
• Earthquake causes shaking of the ground. So a building resting on it will
experience motion at its base.
• From Newton's First Law of Motion, even though the base of the building moves
with the ground, the roof has a tendency to stay in its original position.
• But since the walls and columns are connected to it, they drag the roof along with
them.
• This is much like the situation that you are faced with 'when the bus you are
standing in suddenly starts; your feet move with the bus, but your upper body
tends to stay back making you fall backwards
• This tendency to continue to remain in the previous position is known as inertia.
In the building, since the walls or columns are flexible, the motion of the roof is
different from that of the ground
• Consider a building whose roof is supported on columns (Figure 2).
• Coming back to the analogy of yourself on the bus: when the bus
suddenly starts, you are thrown backwards as if someone has applied a
force on the upper body. Similarly, when the ground moves, even the
building is thrown backwards, and the roof experiences a force, called
inertia force.
• If the roof has a mass M and experiences an acceleration a, then from
Newton's Second Law of Motion, the inertia force F, is mass M times
acceleration a, and its direction is opposite to that of the acceleration.
Clearly, more mass means higher inertia force. Therefore, lighter
buildings sustain the earthquake shaking better
Effect of Deformations in Structures
• The inertia force experienced by the roof is transferred to the ground
via the columns, causing forces in columns.
• These forces generated in the columns can also be understood in
another way. During earthquake shaking, the columns undergo
relative movement between their ends.
• In Figure 2, this movement is shown as quantity u between the roof
and the ground. But, given a free option, columns would like to come
back to the straight vertical position, i.e., columns resist
deformations.
• In the straight vertical position, the columns carry no horizontal
earthquake force through them. But, when forced to bend, they
develop internal forces.
• The larger is the relative horizontal displacement u between the top
and bottom of the column, the larger this internal force in columns.
• Also, the stiffer the columns are (i.e., bigger is the column size),
larger is this force. For this reason, these internal forces in the
columns are called stiffness forces.
• In fact, the stiffness force in a column is the column stiffness times
the relative displacement between its ends
Horizontal and Vertical Shaking
• Earthquake causes shaking of the ground in all three directions - along the two
horizontal directions (X and Y, say), and the vertical direction(Z, say) (Figure 3).
• Also, during the earthquake, the ground shakes randomly back and forth (- and
+) along each of these X, Y and Z directions.
• All structures are primarily designed to carry the gravity loads, i.e., they are
designed for a force equal to the mass M (this includes mass due to own weight
and imposed loads) times the acceleration due to gravity g acting in the vertical
downward direction (-Z). The downward force Mg is called the gravity load.
• The vertical acceleration during ground shaking either adds to or subtracts from
the acceleration due to gravity. Since factors of safety are used in the design of
structures to resist the gravity loads, usually most structures tend to be adequate
against vertical shaking.
• However, horizontal shaking along X and Y directions (both + and -
directions of each) remains a concern.
• Structures designed for gravity loads, in general, may not be able to
safely sustain the effects of horizontal earthquake shaking. Hence, it is
necessary to ensure adequacy of the structures against horizontal
earthquake effects.
Flow of Inertia Forces to Foundations
• Under horizontal shaking of the ground, horizontal inertia forces are
generated at level of the mass of the structure (usually situated at the
floor levels).
• These lateral inertia forces are transferred by the floor slab to the
walls or columns, to the foundations, and finally to the soil system
underneath (Figure 4).
• So, each of these structural elements (floor slabs, walls, columns, and
foundations) and the connections between them must be designed to
safely transfer these inertia forces through them.
• Walls or columns are the most critical elements in transferring the
inertia forces.
• But, in traditional construction, floor slabs and beams receive more care
and attention during design and construction, than walls and columns.
• Walls are relatively thin and often made of brittle material like masonry.
They are poor in carrying horizontal earthquake inertia forces along the
direction of their thickness.
• Failures of masonry walls have been observed in many earthquakes in
the past (e.g., Figure 5a).
• Similarly, poorly designed and constructed reinforced concrete columns
can be disastrous.
• The failure of the ground storey columns resulted in numerous building
collapses during the 2001 Bhuj (India) earthquake (Figure 5b).
Importance of Architectural Features
• The behaviour of a building during earthquakes depends critically on
its overall shape, size and geometry, in addition to how the
earthquake forces are carried to the ground.
• Hence, at the planning stage itself, architects and structural engineers
must work together to ensure that the unfavourable features are
avoided and a good building configuration is chosen
Architectural Features
• A desire to create an aesthetic and functionally efficient structure drives
architects to conceive wonderful and imaginative structures.
• Sometimes the shape of the building catches the eye of the visitor,
sometimes the structural system appeals, and in other occasions both
shape and structural system work together to make the structure a
marvel.
• However, each of these choices of shapes and structure has significant
bearing on the performance of the building during strong earthquakes.
• The wide range of structural damages observed during past earthquakes
across the world is very educative in identifying structural configurations
that are desirable versus those which must be avoided.
Size of Buildings
• In tall buildings with large height-to-base size ratio ,the horizontal
movement of the floors during ground shaking is large.
• In short but very long buildings ,the damaging effects during
earthquake shaking are many.
• And, in buildings with large plan area like warehouses the horizontal
seismic forces can be excessive to be carried by columns and walls
Horizontal Layout of Buildings
• In general, buildings with simple geometry in plan have performed well
during strong earthquakes.
• Buildings with re-entrant corners, like those U, V, H and + shaped in plan,
have sustained significant damage.
• Many times, the bad effects of these interior corners in the plan of
buildings are avoided by making the buildings in two parts.
• For example, an L-shaped plan can be broken up into two rectangular plan
shapes using a separation joint at the junction .
• Often, the plan is simple, but the columns/walls are not equally distributed
in plan. Buildings with such features tend to twist during earthquake
shaking
Vertical Layout of Buildings
• The earthquake forces developed at different floor levels in a building
need to be brought down along the height to the ground by the
shortest path; any deviation or discontinuity in this load transfer path
results in poor performance of the building.
• Buildings with vertical setbacks (like the hotel buildings with a few
storeys wider than the rest) cause a sudden jump in earthquake
forces at the level of discontinuity (Figure 3a).
• Buildings that have fewer columns or walls in a particular storey or
with unusually tall storey (Figure 3b), tend to damage or collapse
which is initiated in that storey
• Many buildings with an open ground store)- intended for parking collapsed
or were severely damaged in Gujarat during the 2001 Bhuj earthquake.
• Buildings on slopy ground have unequal height columns along the slope,
which causes ill effects like twisting and damage in shorter columns (Figure
3c).
• Buildings with columns that hang or float on beams at an intermediate
storey and do not go all the way to the foundation, have discontinuities in
the load transfer path (Figure 3d).
• Some buildings have reinforced concrete walls to carry the earthquake
loads to the foundation. Buildings, in which these walls do not go all the
way to the ground but stop at an upper level, are liable to get severely
damaged during earthquakes.
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.
Building Characteristics
• The seismic forces exerted on a building are not externally developed
forces like wind instead they are the response of cyclic motions at the
base of a building causing accelerations and hence inertia force.
• The response is therefore essentially dynamic in nature.
• The dynamic properties of the structure such as natural period,
damping and mode shape play a crucial role in determining the response
of building.
• Besides, other characteristics of the building system also affect the
seismic response such as ductility, building foundation, response of non-
structural elements etc. The effects of building’s characteristics on its
seismic performance are described as follows
Mode Shapes and Fundamental
Period
• The elastic properties and mass of building causes to develop a vibratory
motion when they are subjected to dynamic action.
• This vibration is similar to vibration of a violin string, which consists of a
fundamental tone and the additional contribution of various harmonics.
• The vibration of a building likewise consists of a fundamental mode of
vibration and the additional contribution of various modes, which vibrates
at higher frequencies.
• In low-rise building (say less than five-storey high) the seismic response
depends primarily on the fundamental mode of vibration; accordingly, the
period of vibration of this mode, expressed in seconds, is one of the most
representative characteristics of the dynamic response of a building.
• On the basis of time period, building may be classified as :
rigid (T < 0.3 sec),
semi-rigid (0.3 sec < T < 1.0 sec) and
 flexible structure (T > 1.0 sec).
• Buildings with higher natural frequencies, and a short natural period,
tend to suffer higher accelerations but smaller displacement.
• In the case of buildings with lower natural frequencies, and a long
natural period, this is reversed: the buildings will experience lower
accelerations but larger displacements.
• Fundamental period of vibration can be determined by the code
based empirical formulas and fundamental modes of the building may
be determined by any one of the several methods developed for the
dynamic analysis of structures
Building Frequency and Ground
Period
• Inertial forces generated in the building depend upon the frequencies of the
ground on which the building is standing and the building’s natural frequency.
• When these are near or equal to one another, the building’s response reaches a
peak level.
• In some circumstances, this dynamic amplification effect can increase the building
acceleration to a value, which may be double or more than that of the ground
acceleration at the base of the building.
• Past studies show that the predominant period at a firm ground site is typically in
the range 0.2–0.4 sec while the period can reach 2 sec or more on soft ground.
• Since building structures have fundamental periods of approximately 0.1 N (where
N is the number of storeys), it can be concluded that if the foundation soil is firm,
rigid structure will have more unfavourable seismic response than flexible
structures, whereas the seismic response of flexible structures on soft foundation
sites will be less favourable than that of rigid structure
• A spectacular example was in Mexico city during 1985 earthquake,
which saw enormous damage in medium height buildings of 10–20
storeys, which have periods matching the 2 sec period of the
earthquake motions in the city centre, while adjacent low re-rise
buildings, with much shorter periods, were proportionately far less
damaged.
• Similar site effects are observed in most damaging earthquakes
(Booth, 1994).
Damping
• The degree of structural amplification of the ground motion at the base of the
building is limited by structural damping.
• Therefore, damping is the ability of the structural system to dissipate the energy of
the earthquake ground shaking.
• Since the building response is inversely proportional to damping.
• The more damping a building possesses, the sooner it will stop vibrating—which of
course is highly desirable from the standpoint of earthquake performance.
• There is no numerical method available for determining the damping. It is only
obtained by experiments.
• In a structure, damping is due to internal friction and the absorption of energy by
the building’s structural and non-structural elements.
• Today, some of the more advanced techniques of earthquake resistant design and
construction employ added damping devices like shock absorbers to increase
artificially the intrinsic damping of a building and so improve its earthquake
Ductility
• Ductility is defined as the capacity of the building materials, systems,
or structures to absorb energy by deforming in the inelastic range.
• The safety of the building from collapse is on the basis of energy,
which must be imparted to the structure in order to make it fail. In
such instance, consideration must be given to structure’s capacity to
absorb energy rather than to its resistance.
• Therefore ductility of a structure in fact is one of the most important
factors affecting its earthquake performance.
• The primary task of an engineer designing a building to be earthquake
resistant is to ensure that the building will possess enough ductility.
• Although there are as yet no clearly defined methods for determining the
ductility of a structure, it is useful to clarify the concept, so that at least a
relative appreciation of its importance can be attained.
• The greater energy is required causing a structure to fail, the greater is its
ductility. The ductility of a structure depends on the type of material used and
also the structural characteristics of the assembly
• It is possible to build ductile structures with reinforced concrete if care is taken
during designing to provide the joints with sufficient abutments that can
adequately confine the concrete, thus permitting it to deform plastically
without breaking.
• It is also important for this purpose to ensure that the tension edges of the
structure are adequately reinforced and that there are sufficient stirrups to
ensure that concrete is properly confined along the compression edge.
• For example, in columns, due to combined effect of flexure and axial produces
a flexural compression failure mode in which failure takes place near the
column ends and buckling of longitudinal reinforcement. This can be
eliminated by providing the lateral reinforcement in the region of plastic
Seismic Weight
• Seismic forces are proportional to the building weight and increases
along the height of the building.
• Weight reduction can be obtained by using lighter materials or by
relocation of heavy weight such as file racks, libraries, swimming
pools etc., at lower levels.
• For example, if a load P placed at fifth level, the overturning moment
becomes 25 times greater than P placed at the first level. Besides, the
seismic shear affects from level 1 to 5, whereas, in the second case,
only the first level is affected but to a lesser extent (5 times less)
Hyperstaticity/Redundancy
• Hyperstatic (statically indeterminate) structures have advantage
because if primary system yields or fails, the lateral force can be
redistributed to secondary elements or system to prevent progressive
failure (alternate load path).
• Moreover, hyperstaticity of the structure causes the formation of
plastic hinges that can absorb considerable energy without depriving
the structure of its stability.
• Therefore, the redundancy of hyperstatic structure is highly desirable
characteristic for earthquake resistant design
Non-structural Elements
• The non-structural damage problem is particularly difficult to deal with because the
nonstructural components that are subjected to seismic forces are not normally within
the design scope of the structural engineer, whose responsibility is to provide the seismic
safety of the building.
• In addition, non-structural components—such as partition walls—are often added after
the initial building design, and the original architect, or an architect at all, is often not
involved.
• Finally, non-structural components remain uninvolved in the building design and
become the source of damage. In general, non-structural damage is caused in two ways.
 The component may be directly affected by ground motion transmitted by the main
structure of the building and be subjected to accelerations and consequent inertial forces
in similar way to the building structure.
 Alternatively, the non-structural components may be affected by the movement or
distortion in the structural elements that support or abet the element. These two causes
can be summarized as acceleration or drift related damage
contd.
• Methods of mitigating the damage to nonstructural components must
recognize the probable mode of failure, whether through inertial forces
or movement of failure in backing or abetting structures.
• For the former, non-structural components must be designed and
detailed in a similar way to the building structure, using an analysis of
forces to determine bracing support requirements.
• For the latter, separation from backup or abetting structures is
necessary.
• Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing distribution system must be
secured to the building structure, with allowances for differential
movement where applicable
 Foundation Soil/Liquefaction
• Knowledge of the foundation soil is essential to correct earthquake-resistant design.
• In some cases a soil behaving well under static loads will pose serious problems under
seismic loads
• Problems related to foundation soil can be classified mainly in two groups:
(i) influence of subsoil on the characteristics of seismic movement, landslides and loss of soil
resistance (liquefaction), these problems are not significantly affected by the structures and
their foundations and
 (ii) problems caused by the loads transmitted to the soil by foundations and the settling of
the foundations under static and seismic loads.
• This problem generally arises in loose unsaturated granular soils, which may be compacted
as a result of earthquake. The liquefaction of the soil is most common feature in an
earthquake. This phenomenon of loss of resistance is generally occurred in saturated
granular soil
• At Niigata, Japan, in 1964 subsoil of the loose saturated sand underwent a considerable loss
of resistance during an earthquake, as a result, many buildings were damaged, severely
undermined and in extreme cases, completely toppled.
Foundations
• Foundation of the building is subjected to earthquake stresses; the following major
recommendation on structural design must be borne in mind
(i) Foundation should preferably be designed as continuous (mat or raft) in order to
avoid relative horizontal displacement
 (ii) In case of isolated footing, they should be joined to each other by means of
foundation beams or ties. These ties should be designed such that it will bear
tension and compression forces.
(iii) It is recommended that parts of building foundations, which rest on soils of
different types or are sunk to different depths, should be designed as separate units.
In such cases there should also be structural independence in the superstructure.
 (iv) It is recommended that if different parts of the building are to be structurally
independent because of the shape of their ground plan; their foundations should
also be independent.
QUALITY OF CONSTRUCTION AND
MATERIALS
• One of the main factors responsible for stepping of seismoresistant capacity of
building is its quality of materials and workmanship of construction.
• The industrially produced materials used in construction such as cement,
reinforcement, brick etc. should satisfy minimum standards of quality and
resistance, which can only be guaranteed by the manufacturers.
• Besides that, quality of concrete, faulty execution of construction joint, and
detailing reinforcement are also affecting the performance of structure.
• The factors affecting the seismoresistant capacity of building are described as
follows.
• By proper inspection programme their effect could be minimized.
Quality of Concrete
• Grade of concrete specified in design documents may not be
developed during construction mainly due to
 incorrect proportioning
 insufficient mixing which causes segregation
 aggregates with excessive impurities or improper grading
 excessive high water/cement ratio
Construction Joints
• A defective concrete joint, which contributed significantly to causing
of failure of many buildings in past earthquakes is due to
 poor execution of the construction joint/discontinuity
 not located at the points specified by the designer
 accumulation of sawdust, dust and loose materials at the surface of
joint
General Detailing Requirements
• Stepping of seismoresistant capacity of the building is due to
 amount of reinforcement is not placed as specified in design
insufficient concrete cover to reinforcement results rusting in
reinforcing bar and cracks in surface concrete
proper placing of reinforcement during casting
improper confinement and large tie spacing especially in plastic hinge
region
insufficient confinement and anchorage length at joints
insufficient splicing length of longitudinal reinforcement in columns or
splicing of all bars at the same cross section
contd.
accumulation of splices just above a concrete joint or in plastic hinge
zone
splicing of tension reinforcement in beams and columns in region of
tension or reversing stress
the end of lateral reinforcement should be bent at 135 degree
use of high resistance steel in relatively low-resistance concrete
curves in reinforcement cause thrust in concrete when the bar is
subjected to tension and compression