Period Formula for Reinforced Concrete Buildings with Infill Walls

Abstract

The calculation of fundamental time period of vibration is a crucial step in seismic design and analysis of the structures to assess global response of the structure. Different international code proposed empirical expressions considering only height for bare frame structures and height and width of the buildings with infill to estimate the fundamental time period. This paper summaries the effect of the following parameters of building height, bay width, number of bays, cracked or un-cracked section of the structural member and support condition at the base on the fundamental time period of reinforced concrete bare frame and buildings with infill. Modal analysis of 360 building models with selected parameters is investigated in this study. A new equation, which is a function of the selected parameters (building height, bay width, number of bays, type of support condition, cracked or un-cracked sections and type of frame chosen for analysis) is also proposed using multiple linear regression analysis for predicting the fundamental period of buildings. The proposed simple model, including the building height, bay width, number of bays, type of support condition, cracked or un-cracked sections and type of frame chosen for analysis, showed better estimate in predicting the fundamental period of buildings compared to the code equations.