CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION

In multi-storeyed framed buildings, damage from earthquake ground motion generally

initiates at locations of structural weaknesses present in the lateral load resisting frames.

Further, these weaknesses tend to accentuate and concentrate the structural damage

through plastification that eventually leads to complete collapse. In some cases, these

weaknesses may be created by discontinuities in stiffness, strength or mass between

adjacent storeys. Such discontinuities between storeys are often associated with sudden

variations in the frame geometry along the height. There are many examples of failure of

buildings in past earthquakes due to such vertical discontinuities.

A common form of vertical discontinuity arises from reduction of the lateral dimension

of the building along its height. This building category is labelled as ‘stepped building’

in this thesis. This building form is becoming increasingly popular in modern multi-

storey building construction mainly because of its functional and aesthetic architecture.

In particular, such a stepped form provides for adequate daylight and ventilation for the

lower storeys in an urban locality with closely spaced tall buildings. This type of

building form also provides for compliance with building bye-law restrictions related to

‘floor area ratio’ (practice in India). Figs 1.1 to 1.4 show typical examples of stepped

buildings in urban India. Incidentally, these are located in relatively high seismic zone,

which calls for special attention. Stepped buildings are characterised by staggered abrupt

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reductions in floor area along the height of the building, with consequent drops in mass,

strength and stiffness (not necessarily at the same rate).

Fig. 1.1: Hotel Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi

Fig. 1.2: Polaris Office, Gurgaon

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Fig. 1.3: Delhi Sachivalaya, New Delhi

Fig. 1.4: Office Building, Gurgaon

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Height-wise changes in stiffness and mass render the dynamic characteristics of these

buildings different from the ‘regular’ building. It has been reported in the literature

(Athanassiadou, 2008) that higher mode participation is significant in these buildings.

Also, the inter-storey drifts for stepped building are expected to be more in the upper

floors and less in the lower floors, compared to regular buildings without steps.

It may not be possible to evaluate the seismic performance of stepped building

accurately using conventional non-linear static (pushover) analysis outlined in

FEMA 356:2000 and ATC 40:1996, because of its limitations for the structures with

significant higher modes effects. There have been a number of efforts reported in

literature to extend the pushover analysis procedure to include different irregular

building categories. However, so far, stepped buildings have not been addressed in this

regard. It is instructive to study the performance of conventional pushover analysis

methodology as well as other alternative pushover methodologies for stepped buildings

and to suggest improvements suitable for stepped buildings. This is the primary

motivation underlying the present study.

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE THESIS

Prior to defining the specific objectives of the present study, a detailed literature review

was taken up. This is discussed in detail in Chapter 2 and briefly summarised here.

Design codes have not given particular attention to the stepped building form. This is

perhaps due to the paucity of research on stepped buildings reported in literature. An

extensive literature survey has revealed only three journal papers in this area. Two of

these papers (Wood 1992, Athanassiadou 2008) deal with concrete frames, while the

third paper (Karavasilis et. al. 2008) deals with steel frames. All three research papers

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conclude that the displacement demand is strongly dependent on the geometrical

configuration of the frame. The higher modes significantly contribute to the acceleration

response of the structure. However, the displacement and shear responses of the stepped

building depend primarily on the fundamental mode. One paper (Athanassiadou 2008)

concludes that the conventional pushover analysis does not work for stepped building and

recommends against the use of pushover analysis for such buildings.

The literature survey revealed, however, extensive research work on another category of

buildings with vertical geometric irregularity, namely, ‘setback buildings’ (where a

narrow tower projects from a wide base). These research papers were reviewed to gain

insight into the behaviour of vertically irregular buildings. The studies on setback

buildings present contradictory conclusions. The majority of these research papers point

out that the seismic performance of setback buildings are influenced largely by the

number of storeys, degree of geometric irregularity, beam-to-column strength ratio and

other structural characteristics. A few researchers opine that there is no significant

difference in seismic behaviour of setback buildings, compared to regular buildings and

therefore design codes need not spell out specific design procedures for such buildings.

There is no reported research effort on pushover analysis of setback buildings.

Pushover analysis is a non-linear static analysis of the frame subjected to a prescribed

lateral loading that is monotonically increased till the collapse mechanism forms.

Displacement demand of the frame for a particular earthquake and for a specified

performance level is then calculated from the resulting base-shear versus roof-

displacement curve. This analysis, as explained in FEMA 356, is primarily meant for

regular buildings with dominant fundamental mode participation. There are many

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alternative approaches of pushover analysis reported in the literature to make it applicable

for different categories of irregular buildings. These comprise (i) modal pushover

analysis (Chopra and Goel, 2001), (ii) modified modal pushover analysis (Chopra et. al.,

2004), (iii) upper bound pushover analysis (Jan et. al., 2004), and (iv) adaptive pushover

analysis, etc. However, none of these methods have been tested for stepped or setback

buildings.

Based on the above literature review, the salient objectives of the present study have been

identified as follows:

1. To assess different pushover methodologies available in literature for their

applicability to stepped buildings.

2. To propose improvements in existing pushover analysis techniques for stepped

buildings, supported by non-linear time history analyses.

3. To perform a detailed case study of seismic evaluation of a stepped building

using the proposed approach.

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The present study is limited to reinforced concrete (RC) multi-storeyed building frames

with stepped vertical irregularity. Stepped buildings up to 20 storeys with different

degrees of irregularity are considered. The buildings are assumed to be stepped only in

one direction.

The plan asymmetry arising out of the vertical geometric irregularity strictly calls for

three-dimensional analysis to account properly for torsion effects. This is not considered

in the present study, which is limited to analysis of plane stepped frames. Although

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different storey heights (up to 20 storeys) and stepped irregularities are considered, the

number of bays restricted, for convenience, to four. The bay width is assumed to be

typically 6m and storey height 3m.

It will be appropriate to consider adaptive load pattern in pushover analysis in order to

include the effect of progressive structural yielding. However, for the present study only

fixed load distribution shapes are utilised in pushover analysis, in order to keep the

procedure computationally simple and attractive for design office environment.

Soil-structure interaction effects are not considered. The floor slabs are modelled as rigid

diaphragms.

1.4 METHODOLOGY

The steps undertaken in the present study to achieve the above-mentioned objectives are

as follows:

a) Carry out extensive literature review, to establish the objectives of the research

work.

b) Develop appropriate tools (plastic hinge properties) to carry out nonlinear

structural analysis.

c) Select an exhaustive set of stepped building frame models with different storey

heights (6 to 20) and different step heights (limit to 50 stepped frame models).

d) Analyse each of the 50 building models, using all the four major nonlinear static

pushover analysis procedures.

e) Reanalyse the above frames using nonlinear time history analysis procedure,

considering 20 ground motion records each.

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 f) Perform a comparative study and rate the different pushover analysis procedures

for their applicability to stepped building frames.

g) Explore possible improvements in existing pushover analysis procedure (load

vector and target displacement estimation) for its applicability to stepped

buildings.

h) Carry out case study of an existing three dimensional stepped building to

demonstrate the proposed improvement in pushover analysis procedure.

1.5 ORGANISATION OF THE THESIS

This introductory chapter has presented the background, objective, scope and

methodology of the present study. Chapter 2 starts with a description of the previous

work done on stepped irregular and setback moment-resisting frames by other

researchers. Later in the chapter, a description of traditional pushover analysis

procedures as per FEMA 356 and ATC 40 are presented and the major limitations of the

current pushover analysis procedures discussed. Finally, this chapter discusses selected

alternative methods reported in literature to overcome the existing limitations. The

performances of these alternative methods for stepped buildings are also discussed at the

end of the Chapter 2.

Chapter 3 describes the analytical modelling used in the present study for representing

the actual behaviour of different structural components in the building frame. It also

describes in detail the modelling of point plastic hinges used in the present study,

algorithm for generating hinge properties and the assumptions considered. This Chapter

then presents the different geometries of stepped building considered in the study and

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the criterion for choosing them. Finally, this Chapter presents the input ground motion

and other parameters used for non-linear time-history analysis.

Chapter 4 begins with a presentation of general behaviour of stepped buildings under

earthquake ground motion. It explains the proposed time period correction factor for

IS 1893:2002 equation of fundamental period estimation. Then, it explains the proposed

spatial distribution of lateral load for linear static and pushover analysis of stepped

buildings. Finally, this Chapter presents the proposed improvement of displacement

coefficient method for the estimation of target displacement of stepped building.

Chapter 5 presents a detailed case study of seismic evaluation of a three dimensional

stepped building using the proposed approach. It also compares the FEMA 356 approach

of seismic evaluation with proposed approach and the results of non-linear time-history

analysis. A proposal for seismic retrofit of the building, based on the proposed pushover

analysis is also suggested.

Finally, Chapter 6 presents a summary including salient features, significant conclusions

from this study and the future scope of research in this area.