SEISMIC RESPONSE OF MULTI-STOREY BUILDINGS INCORPORATING FLOATING COLUMNS

Nabeel Musthafa, Annapurna B.P

Abstract: Various factors which governs in contributing damage to the structure during an earthquake are vertical irregularities, irregularity in strength and stiffness, mass irregularity, torsional irregularity, etc. One such irregularity is a Floating Column configuration in a building. In this study, the influence of Floating columns on seismic response of multi-storey buildings is studied. Floating Column is basically a stubbed column which is stopped at a particular storey and does not have any continuity to the lower adjacent storey. Such Columns floating in the structure definitely bring out aesthetics of the building. But when such a column become an active member in resisting and dissipating the lateral forces due to seismicity, a hindrance is created in the clear load path and thereby generating a weak link in the structure. The present work focuses on the seismic behaviour of buildings, i.e., the effect on Lateral Displacement and Storey drift when Floating Columns are introduced in the structure. The Floating columns are varied in numbers and at various locations in plan. The transfer girders are varied in sizes (making it safe against the loads) and are compared with its regular counterpart. It is observed that by introducing Floating Columns into the framed structure, the criticality of the structure increases in terms of storey drift. Conclusions drawn from the study stipulates that introducing Floating Columns increases the criticality of the structure under seismic forces.

Keywords: Floating Column, Transfer Girder, Storey Drift, Displacement, Response Spectrum

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2016.0532017