Fundamental periods of reinforced concrete building frames resting on sloping ground

Abstract

Significant research efforts were undertaken to evaluate seismic performance of vertically irregular buildings on flat ground. However, there is scarcity of study on seismic performance of buildings on hill slopes. The present study attempts to investigate seismic behaviour of reinforced concrete irregular stepback building frames with different configurations on sloping ground. Based on extensive regression study of free vibration results of four hundred seventeen frames with varying ground slope, number of story and span number, a modification is proposed to the code based empirical fundamental time period estimation formula. The modification to the fundamental time period estimation formula is a simplified function of ground slope and a newly introduced equivalent height parameter to reflect the effect of stiffness and mass irregularity. The derived empirical formula is successfully validated with various combinations of slope and framing configurations of buildings. The correlation between the predicted and the actual time period obtained from the free vibration analysis results are in good agreement. The various statistical parameters e.g., the root mean square error, coefficient of determination, standard average error generally used for validation of such regression equations also ensure the prediction capability of the proposed empirical relation with reasonable accuracy.